A Single Spark
by evilqueen13
Summary: This is a story about freeky powers, destiny, cranky novelists, and the possible end of the known world. It's funny, scary, a little bloody, and has lots of really foul language. Can one gentle heart be enough to save the whole world?
1. A Single Spark

I have no idea where the hell I'm going with this story yet. An actual plot is only starting to form now.

As always I own nothing but my twisted imagination. I make nothing from this accept the mild sense of personal satisfaction that I can type really fast with all 10 fingers.

This takes place after all the madness of the manga story line.

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A Single Spark

When you really think about the universe you have to stop thinking in terms of the here and now. When you look up into the sky you are looking across the infinite amounts of nothing at all that has always existed and will always exist even after we are gone. When you try to think about the size of the universe and your place in it, you attempt to think about where it ends. The problem is that, if you can imagine and end to the universe you still have to wonder what is beyond that end. Even if you imagine there is nothing at all, it's still something, something that exists by being nothing. Once you realize there is no conceivable end of the universe's age or size, you realize that possibilities are endless as well. After all there surely is enough room and time for every possible scenario to be tried at one point or another. It turns out that today was the day that one of those very rare possibilities coalesced into something that had never happened before.

Shuichi Shindou looked at the signs on the door of his lover's office. The one sign read: Do not enter, a second sign read: Go away Shuichi, and a third sign read: Beware of PMSing novelist. (Ok, Shuichi wrote that one, he couldn't resist) Shuichi knew that on the other side of that door, Yuki was struggling to make the approaching deadline he had in two days. Shuichi felt a pang of guilt when he thought about the deadline, because he was to blame for Yuki being so behind. Well, it wasn't totally his fault. For some reason the computer just blanked out when Shuichi had tried to use it, actually it kind of just blew. The crash had all the makings of a power surge, but nobody could figure out how that was possible on a computer that wasn't hooked up to anything.

Shuichi Shindou was, for all intents and purposes, both an idiot and a genius. Some days he was like a very annoying 5-year-old child and other days, he was something else. This was one of those 'something else' days. The energy he displayed as the vocalist for the number one band in Japan was immeasurable. He was at the top of his game. Everything should have been perfect in his life, but something was wrong. It was the kind of something that made him feel out of place at odd moments, a restless feeling that squeezed at his heart every so often. Usually when he had these feelings he sought comfort in the arms of his lover. Sometimes this alone was enough to chase the feeling away, but today it looked like that wasn't gonna' happen.

Shuichi sighed and retired to the couch. He wanted to do something, anything. He felt the walls of the apartment closing in on him and he felt itchy, incredibly restless and itchy. There was a sensation crawling under is skin, an unspoken urge that struggled to be comprehended. It felt like he had been given thirty cups of coffee and then duck taped snugly to a wall to think. He felt like every cell in his brain was firing at once. Shuichi rolled over and looked up at the ceiling. He tried listening to his own heartbeat in an attempt to relax. It wasn't working. For as long as he could remember he had been having moments like this, but lately he noticed these fits had started to become more common and more intense. He was starting to wonder if there was something wrong with him. He wanted to run or scream or fight or something, anything that would relieve the feeling coursing throughout his body. He felt like he could just burst into flame at any moment.

He didn't know why but he held up his hand. Holding his index finger and thumb about three inches apart he concentrated on the space between his fingers. He wasn't sure why he was doing this. He only knew the itchiness seemed to now rush to his hand. Which felt a bit better for the rest of his body. He wasn't sure how long he stared like that, but he noticed his thoughts became clearer as he concentrated. It was as if, for that moment, he began to finally understand something.

As Shuichi studied his hand and the new sensation he was feeling, a spark of power flashed between his fingers. He looked in shock. What just happened? That had to be a trick of the sunlight or something. The reflection off of a passing car outside, yea that's all it was. He tried it again, another tiny flicker of light shot from one finger to the other. Holy shit. Shuichi looked at his hand. He tried again this time pointing his finger to one of the bulbs in the ceiling fan. He concentrated on the bulb. A spark shot out from his hand and with a sharp pop. The bulb shattered, raining tiny bits of glass down onto the floor below.

It was at this point that Yuki had managed to retrieve the lost info on his not completely fried hard drive. With a sigh of relief he managed to save the rest of the novel, which meant he could once again join the outside world, even though he wasn't really sure if that was a good thing. He was just getting up from his desk when he heard the pop from the bulb outside. He as he poked his head out of his office, he looked around for the source of the noise and found his lover staring at bits of bulb on the floor looking completely dumbstruck. Shuichi looked up and said with awe, "Look Yuki I broke it!"

"Yes, so I see. Good for you." Yuki said while running his hand through his hair. "It's official we now have solid proof that it takes more than one idiot to change a light bulb."

"No Yuki" Shuichi protested, "I broke it without touching it."

Yuki raised an eyebrow, "If you didn't touch it then how did it break? Psychic stupidity?"

"I'm not sure how I did it. I just did. Watch this." Shuichi pointed to the remote control on the coffee table. He stared at it intently for a few moments.

Yuki sighed as he realized his lover had finally gone insane. "That's really great you can point and squint like that, but that does not explain why you broke the bulb."

"Yuuuki, just shut up for a minute. I can do this" but as Shuichi spoke a spark of light shot from his hand and hit the remote. The remote was knocked off the table and sent skittering across the floor. When it stopped a thin column of smoke was rising from it.

Now it was Yuki's turn to be dumbstruck. If his eyebrows had gone any higher they would have needed to be scraped of the ceiling, "What the fuck? You just killed the remote. How the hell did you do that?"

"I don't know. I can't think. My head is killing me now." Shuichi puffed as he flopped onto the couch, holding his head.

Yuki was still in shock. He looked at Shuichi he didn't know what to think. This wasn't something normal people were able to do, but since when was Shuichi ever normal? Yuki sat down on the couch and was immediately covered in a lapful of Shuichi.

"Yuki do you think I'm weird?" Shuichi's eyes were huge and pleading.

Yuki looked at him incredulously "Are you kidding?"

"Yukiiiii, do you think I'm weird?" Shuichi repeated his voice rising in agitation.

Yuki looked at his lover a second before answering, "Yes."

"Yuki! I'm scared. I don't know what's happening to Me."

"Maybe you're finally going through puberty." Yuki was recovering from his shock and remembering he had some 'Shuichi time' he wanted to catch up on.

"Yuki! I'm serious!" Shuichi's voice was now reaching full whine mode.

"Yea, I heard weird things happen during puberty. Are you growing any chest hair?" He said with a small grin wile playfully lifting Shu's shirt.

"Yuki cut that out!" Shuichi griped as he struggled with Yuki for control of his shirt, "Puberty was eight years ago"

Yuki was ignoring Shuichi's protests. "Then how come you never grew any chest hair?"

"I did, I mean I do. I shave it." Shuichi said as wile trying to pull his shirt back down.

Yuki stopped for a second and Yuki stared at his lover. "You shave your chest? For the love of god why?"

"I like being you know, smooth." Shuichi said sheepishly.

"You have got to be kidding me. What else do you shave? No wait, don't answer that. I don't want to know." Yuki tackled Shuichi and pinned his lover under him. "I do know it's been a bit too long since the last time we spent time together. Why don't we do a little catching up?" he said with a lustful grin while making a second attempt to undress his lover.

"Yuki my head hurts and I am not in the mood right now!" Shuichi tried pushing Yuki off. "Yuki! Cut it out!" Yelled in frustration. Pop! The end table lamp just exploded. Spraying the both of them with bits of bulb.

"Shuichi! What did you do that for?" Yuki stood up brushing himself off.

Shuichi was stunned, "but, but I didn't mean to do that. I don't even know how I did it. Ow, man, my head hurts and I think I have glass in my hair."

"Serves you right. Now clean that up wile I order us something to eat." Yuki snorted wile heading off to the kitchen, agitated that he wasn't getting any tonight.

Later That Night---

Shuichi couldn't sleep. He was starting to feel restless again. He stared blankly at the bedroom window watching, or rather it was more like feeling the storm gathering there in the sky. He felt something tug at him as he watched a distant flicker of lightning. His heart quickened to the low, threatening growl of the thunder. He felt like something was calling him. The winds started to up throwing about dirt and bits of leaves. Shuichi could feel the power of the storm growing by the minute. He could smell the rain and sense the drop in pressure as the storm crept ever closer.

Careful not to wake his lover he slipped out of the bed, snuck out of the bedroom, and headed out onto the balcony. As he stepped outside he noticed a change in the wind. It was that fleeting of moment silence before the storm, the moment when the air becomes as still as death. It's as if the very earth itself seems to hold its breath in anticipation of the rain. It reminded Shuichi of the sound the massive speakers made when they were clicked on for one of his concerts ominous, silent, with only a hint of their massive power electrifying the air as they wait for his song to start.

Then the rain started with the first large clumsy drops pattering around him. He noted how cool they felt on his skin as he stood there letting the rain pelt him. He made his way to the railing as the swirling wind and water began to intensify. The lightning was getting closer, as it flashed it made the hairs on the back of his neck rise up. As the echo of the thunder died away the sky opened up. The rain had come in full force. The lightning flashed dangerously close, but Shuichi didn't even flinch; he was already absorbed into the rush of the wind. It was the blowing in of a new season, the howling wind of change.

Shu just stood there absorbing the power of the storm. As the thunder shook the building, he felt it's roar deep in the pit of his stomach. He felt alive. He felt free. Letting the storm's power flash inches from his skin, was to let everything else fade into the background. The infernal hum in the back of his head seemed to die away with the roar of the storm. He leaned against the railing arms outstretched in an attempt to absorb even more from the swirling torrent. He wanted to go further, but something held him back. There was still one tiny nagging kernel of doubt stuck somewhere in the back of his mind. Something was warning him that he was still in danger of going too far.

The rain came down in sheets. It was the height of the worst thunderstorm of the year. Yuki woke up to the apartment windows rattling from the thunder. Lighting was flickering savagely with barely a pause between the bursts. It was a very dark and angry storm. It took Yuki a few moments to realize he was alone in his bed. His pink haired lover was missing.

The house seemed silent despite the tempest outside. Yuki knew why, it was always felt quiet when the singer was not by his side, no matter how noisy the world was. Maybe he got up to pee, but the bathroom light wasn't on. Yuki got up and made his way across the living room. Where the hell did he go? "Shu?" he said hesitantly glancing at the empty couch. He had just turned around when noticed the light from a flash of lightning had touched on something on the balcony. He looked at the balcony as the lightning flashed again and saw something that that made his blood run cold. Shuichi was leaning over the ledge, what was he doing out in a storm like that? Was he intending to jump?

"Shu?" Shuichi turned his head to see Yuki with a look of fear in his eyes.

"What?" Both Shuichi's eyes and voice were eerily blank.

"What are you doing?" Yuki was trying hard not to sound scared.

"Thinking." He replied as he turned his attention back to the storm.

Yuki didn't really want to know what Shuichi needed to think about outside in a storm. Those kinds of thoughts never bode well. He started rummaging for his cigarettes in anticipation "Does your brain work inside the house, or do you have to be out there to think?"

"Yuki, please stop picking on me." Shuichi's voice was still deadpan calm.

"I am not the one standing on the balcony in the rain doing an impersonation of a lightning rod. Is it that your brain doesn't work unless you are soaked? Does it need water like a plant?"

"I feel strange again and I don't know why." Shuichi wasn't even turning around to look at Yuki when he spoke.

Yuki was urgently hoping Shuichi would give up and just come back in the house already.  
"That's because you are strange. You're going to get sick."

"I think I already am."

"Oh stop whining. So you can do weird things. I bet you'll be fun at parties now."

Shuichi gave a dark chuckle, "Gee, thanks for the pep talk."

"You know I hate talking and I don't do pep." Yuki was losing his patience fast. "Your life is what you make of it Shu, Every morning we get up and we have choices. We choose to continue with the way things are or we can change them."

"But I didn't choose this. I don't feel good." Shu's voice rose in competition with the thunder or was it out of frustration. The intensity of the storm seemed to flutter with Shuichi's loss of composure.

"OK Shu, I am all out of clichés, so get down from there and come inside now!"

Shu didn't respond. He wasn't done yet. The lightning flashed again so close. The thunder came as a deafening crack. Shuichi felt a sudden jolt.

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Don't worry readers; I wont leave you hanging for long. I gotta end this chapter somewhere, so here looked like a good spot. Evilgrin.

I listen when people have tips to give me so you don't need to be kind in your reviews. I post on this site for both my readers enjoyment and to get honest opinions about my writing. I thank you for your time spent on this story and I really hope you like it.


	2. Bad Shuichi, No Cookie!

Hi again. Well Here is a bit more. I hope you like it. I have a plotline for this story.. It's somewhere around here.

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Bad Shuichi

Yuki had grabbed Shuichi from behind was hauling him back inside of the house. Shuichi struggled against him. "No Yuki, what are you doing?" He complained. The storm was like a drug and he wanted more, but Yuki's grip was solid.

Yuki dragged Shuichi back into the safety of the apartment and unceremoniously dropped him onto the floor. Shuichi just sat there for a moment with as the rainwater dripped off him and gathered into a growing puddle on the floor. Slowly storm-induced stupor began to fade and he returned to his senses. Strangely, as if by magic the storm had already begun to recede as soon as he was brought inside. It was weird the way it wasn't moving on as much as it was just breaking up like a child after a tantrum. But with the death of the storm, the pain in Shuichi's head returned. His head throbbed, it had to be twenty times worse than the one he had just a few hours ago. He rubbed his temples with both hands and groaned drearily.

"Here take these." Shuichi looked up to see that Yuki was standing over him holding some aspirin and a glass of water.

Shuichi looked up into Yuki's confused face. "Thanks." He said as he took the aspirin. " I'm sorry Yuki. I don't know what came over me." His voice was small and scared.

Yuki didn't understand what was going on, but he knew he didn't like it one bit. Was Shuichi depressed? Did he need professional help? He bent down to run a hand though Shuichi's hair "Idiot. You are going to make me sick if you keep acting like a useless brat." Yuki stood up and fetched a towel to throw over his lover before grabbing one for him self. "Now, if you are done driving me crazy, then why don't you dry off and come back to bed."

As Shuichi dried himself off, he found himself watching the last few remnants of the ebbing storm fading into a crystal clear sky. He shook his head to clear away the last thoughts about the rain as he went back to join Yuki.

The next morning

Shuichi woke up and moaned. Why do mornings have to be so early? He rolled over onto his back as he pieced together the events of the night. Finding only questions with no answers, he got up and went to bug Yuki. He found the novelist sipping his coffee staring blankly at the TV. Shuichi sat down next to him, "Watcha' watchin'?" he asked as cutely as he could wile wrapping his arms around Yuki.

"News." Yuki grunted as he tried to keep his coffee cup from getting spilt. The newswoman was droning on in an emotionless tone as she read the daily report:

This has been the third straight week that reports have been coming in concerning small earthquakes all over the globe. At this time experts are baffled as to why all the seismic activity is occurring. Seismologists have pinpointed MT Fuji in Japan for the highest level of earthquake activity. The Japan is bracing itself for any possible problems.

Shuichi groaned "Oh man, I hope we aren't in for an earthquake. Maybe I shouldn't go to work today."

"I don't think K cares if the world blows up. He's not going to let you take another day off." Yuki said with another sip of his coffee. "You better hurry up too your about to be late."

"Crap!" Shuichi jumped off Yuki and dove into the bedroom to get dressed. In a few seconds he emerged with a "I love you Yuki, bye!" and he was gone.

At the Studio—

Sakano was flipping out because Shuichi was late. As Shuichi sat there listening to Sakano yell at him, he noticed he had formed a new lack of patience for his producer's antics. The man was crying, wailing, and waving schedules around. As Shuichi watched the man rant, he started to get an idea, a very bad idea. When Sakano had his back turned Shuichi took aim and fired, the resulting shot hit the schedules Sakano was still waving around. Papers flew everywhere. "What was that?" Sakano whirled around looking wildly at Shuichi.

Shuichi shrugged pretending to look fearful. "Ghosts. The studio must be haunted."

Sakano looked at Shuichi mouth agape.

Shuichi was concentrating on a forgotten coffee cup sitting on the desk. With a loud "Ping" it shattered. Sakano freaked. "AHHHH ghosts! Ghosts. The studio is haunted." He ran out of the office screaming down the hallway.

It was hard for Shuichi stop himself from laughing his ass off. K had come looking for Shuichi and was trying to figure out what had just happened. All he saw was Sakano screaming like a banshee and running for his life. He knew Shuichi had something to do with it, but he didn't know what. Oh well, whatever it was Sakano probably deserved it anyway.

About an hour later Sakano came back to the recording room to tell Shuichi that Tohma wanted to speak with him. At this Shuichi started to get more ideas really, really bad ideas. Even though his head was still hurting he couldn't help but smile. This was so going to be worth the headache he was about to give himself.

Shuichi made his way down to Tohma's office Tohma was sitting in his big cushy chair at his desk. He had that 'on the warpth' expression on his face. Shuichi had barely entered the room before Tohma started in on him, "I hear you have been causing problems when you are supposed to be working." Shuichi didn't reply. Tohma stood up and spoke as he walked over to the window of his office. "Do I need to remind you that this is a recording studio? We do not tolerate children here. Shuichi you need to grow up." 'Zap' Thoma's hat went flying.

"What the?" He looked at Shuichi skeptically.

"Wow! did you just see that?" Shuichi looked around as if attempting to find the culprit "NG is haunted. It's ghosts."

Tohma knew Shuichi was up to something. He could tell by the feral gleam in his eye, but…"Ahh" Tohma yelled as he just noticed a hole in his hat. "Well your so called ghosts burned a hole in my hat. This was my favorite hat!" Inside Tohma winced at his own words. There are no such things as ghosts!

"Oh my god! It's even worse than we thought", Shu shrieked with mock horror, "Ghosts with lasers! We're doomed!"

Tohma regarded his hat then Shuichi. He tossed the hat in the garbage and went to the large closet in the corner of the room. When he opened the closet door Shuichi peeked inside, he gasped when he saw what was in there; it was full of shelves covered in black pimp hats! Shuichi was amazed, "Wow, You really stocked up before they went out of style, eh?"

Tohma was bristling. "You are the last person who should be giving fashion tips Pinky. Just get out of my office and behave yourself! Don't think just because you are our number one band that I wont make your life miserable." Tohma couldn't believe Shuichi's attitude. This wasn't the Shuichi he was used to. Normally Shuichi would cower in front of him, but today he seemed to have a chip on his shoulder, the size of which rivaled a small ocean liner.

"Don't worry, I am fully versed in your ability to make my life miserable." Shuichi said glaring back at his boss.

"And don't take that tone with me. I can break bad luck as easy as I made bad luck." Tohma puffed losing his cool.

Shuichi saluted "aye, aye captain". Then turned on his heal to leave.

"I'm watching you!" Tohma growled as Shuichi walked out of the office.

"Because you are obsessed with me." Shuichi shot back as he exited the door.

As soon as he far enough away from Tohma the realization of what just happened hit him. He had just mouthed off to his boss. Oh man. What the hell was he thinking! He had even ruined on of the man's many hats. Shuichi groaned as he silently cursed himself. Tohma will probably call Yuki to talk and if Yuki tells Tohma about what he can do. Oh no, Tohma will know it was him all along. Crap! How could he have been so stupid! If his head would just stop hurting maybe he could think of a way out of this mess.

Luckily for Shuichi, that particular day, there was another matter to distract Tohma from calling Yuki. That matter came by the name of Joe Freeman. A guard had just contacted Tohma about a problem they were having with an intruder at the door. The man had apparently already knocked out several of the guards and it looked like police back up was in order. Tohma shook his head. This was not his day.

Joe Freeman was a thin man in his early 60's. He was very well built for his age. His hair was a salt and pepper mix of dark and light gray, cut very short in a military style crew cut. His voice was gravely with a whiney tone with a very thick Brooklyn accent. Clad only in a navy t-shirt and faded blue jeans, one could clearly see the faded tattoos his arms bore. The blurred blue lines snaked up both arms disappearing under the sleeves of his T-shirt where there were probably lots more. The only one you could still make out clearly was the outline of a black panther crawling up his forearm.

Two guards had grabbed Joe in an attempt to stop him. They were on either side of him each holding one arm. Then more guards piled on in an attempt to subdue the stranger. In an instant light began to build, emanating from man's body. In a flash all the guards were scattered blown back in all directions. Joe stood looking at the rolling bodies of the guards. "Serves you guys right. Now tell me where I can find Shuichi Shindou?"

More guards showed up they had pulled their guns and were ready to fire. Joe challenged them "Go ahead. Shoot me. Ya sons of bitches! Fire." He advanced on them.

"Please sir don't come any closer!" Said one panicked guard.

"Fire already!" the Joe yelled still advancing on the line of guards. They opened up emptying their guns on the man. Joe's whole body radiated light. None of the bullets touched him.

"Are you morons done yet? Get the hell out of our way if your not going to help us. Ya, Bunch a' cracker jacks." His hands started to glow again. Everybody who was still standing ran for cover.

"Sheesh. What a bunch of idiots" Joe dusted himself off and straightened his shirt. "Jenna, you can come out any time now you know" He turned to watch a girl emerge from the bushes.

"What, I didn't want to spoil your fun." Jenna was a small girl with long red hair. She was 18 years old and stood only five feet tall. She wore black jeans and a black windbreaker that contrasted with the dark green shirt. Around her neck was a weird looking necklace with a silver star pendant. She gave off a kind of hippie vibe.

"Yea, whatever." Joe just wanted to get this over with. He walked up to the information counter with Jenna trailing behind him. He looked around for the secretary before peeking over the top of the desk to find her cowering underneath it. "Hi Miss. Hey what's the matter? Did you lose something under there?" Joe really had no idea why she was hiding. The lady looked up at him too terrified to speak. Joe didn't wait for an answer. "Listen, I'm kinda' in a hurry. Can you please tell me what floor I can find Shindou Shuichi?"

"12th floor" she stammered.

"Thank you." Said Joe happily and looked at Jenna. "See, I told you this would be piece of cake." Then he turned and headed for the elevators.

"You really are psychotic aren't you gramps." Jenna observed as she trotted after Joe.

"Actually, I was going to say the same thing about you." Joe said as they entered the elevator.

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If it sucks tell me.. I can't make it better if you don't. 


	3. First Encounters

First Encounters

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Bad Luck was in the middle of recording a song when a disheveled guard came skidding into the room. "Mr. Shindou there is a crazy man looking for you. Run!" He panted frantically.

Everyone stopped what they were doing to stare at the guard wheezing in the doorway. K had little patience for this distraction, "What are you talking about? Why didn't security stop him?" he barked at the guard

"This guy just beat up the entire security force and he's coming for Mr. Shindou. You gotta get out of here man!" He said still wheezing from lack of breath. K made a mental note to make sure NG hired more physically fit guards from now on.

Shuichi was just about to take the guards advice, when he noticed the strange man standing in the doorway. With a surprised scream the guard dove into a closet leaving the other members of the room staring at the newcomer.

"Hey fellas, which one of you guys is Shuichi Shindou?" Joe asked. Nobody offered an answer.

Jenna peeked into the room from behind Joe. Joe looked at her and muttered out of the side of his mouth, "Which one?"

Jenna looked at each face then looked up at Joe and shrugged, "How the hell should I know?"

"What do you mean, 'how should I know'?" Joe hissed at Jenna, "Aren't you the one who lead us here. You even knew his name! Now you don't know?".

"The aura is lighting up this building like Christmas and I'm all fuzzy from hunger." She whined.

"You have got to be kidding me! He's in a rock band. Don't you at least know him from his music?" Joe was still trying to contain himself.

"This is what you get for not stopping for lunch." She said glaring at him.

"I'll give you lunch you moody little pain in the ass. What the hell kind of stupid powers do you have that don't work when you're hungry?" Joe grumbled under his breath. He turned to face the others who were just watching this exchange with confusion. Joe sighed. "I don't have time to play games here, so which one of you is…"

That's when Tohma popped into the room. "K, I need to talk to you.." he stopped to look at Joe. Joe gave Tohma a Cheshire cat smile and asked politely "Excuse me sir, can you please tell me which one of these guys is Shuichi Shindou?"

Tohma saw the Shuichi beginning to sweat. At this moment it didn't matter that this was probably the man who single handedly took out NG's entire security force. All Tohma knew was, that he was still mad about his hat.

Incase you didn't know when it comes to pissing off Tohma, it's best that you just don't. It is also critical that you avoid the urge to mess with the man's hat, unless that is, you are suicidal. Tohma leapt at the chance to rat Shuichi out.

"The one with the pink hair" He pointed trying to contain his enjoyment.

Joe looked at Shuichi skepticly, "That one? You're sure?"

Tohma nodded trying hard not to smile. "Bye Shuichi!" He said as he hurried out of the room. Shuichi could have sworn he had heard somebody laugh out in the hallway, but that couldn't have been possible, Tohma never laughed.

Joe turned to get a good look at Shuichi "Christ o' mighty! Not another freakin' flake. I thought you were supposed to be a guy."

"I am a guy." Shuichi said dejectedly.

Joe gave a mild look of surprise and shook his head. "Yea, whatever you say buddy." Joe said fumbling for is Zippo. He had given up smoking years ago, but he always kept the lighter close. He took it out and held it in his hand brushing his thumb over the inscription on it to remind himself it was still there. He had come to rely on it more often since his life took an unexpected turn. The Zippo was one of his links to who he used to be before…

"Who the hell are you?" K said pointing his gun at Joe.

Joe stared at the gun. K felt it getting hot. It got so hot it started to glow red, it burned K's hands until he was forced to finally drop it. "I am really getting sick of being shot at today. I thought you Japanese were supposed to be sweet little pussycats."

"I'm not Japanese." K growled in English shaking his now burned hands.

"Then you are giving Americans a bad name." Joe stopped for a minute and looked at K as if he had just noticed him and smiled brightly. "Hey an American, the name's Joe Freeman. The nutty psycho chick, I mean, lovely psychic is Jenna Strader". Joe didn't miss the glare Jenna shot him. "What part of America are ya' from?"

K glared at the man as he tried to figure him out. "Did you come here for some reason?"

"Yea, I came for Shuichi." Joe said motioning to the sweating singer.

With that Hiro stood and to moved between Shuichi and the new threat, "What do you want with him?"

"Relax already, I only came to talk to him. Shuichi, is there anywhere we can talk in private?" Joe didn't understand why everybody was getting so crazy.

"Uh, n-no" Shuichi said from behind Hiro.

"You sure about that?" Joe watched as the singer cowered behind his friend.

"He's not going anywhere with you." Hiro said with a warning evident in his voice.

"Fine" Joe waved. "Whatever. Shuichi, since you have discovered you can do things have you had any dreams yet?"

Hiro turned around to look as Shuichi, "Shuichi, what the hell does he mean by that?"

Joe didn't give Shuichi a chance to answer the question, "This is why I wanted privacy. I hate interruptions. Just let him answer the question You can talk to him all you want after I'm done." Joe was losing what little patience he had.

"No. I've only been able to do weird stuff since yesterday." Shuichi offered tentatively, as he wondered how the heck did these weirdos knew about him.

"I see, get used to those headaches you'll be having them for a wile." Joe said wile rolling the Zippo in his hands.

"Why am I getting them?" Shuichi's fear of the man abated as he realized he had questions that really needed answers.

"Your head hurts because you are not used to using your brain. Once you get used to the powers they start to go away. You have managed to tap into a part of your brain that nobody understands. So far we only know of nine people who have done it and you my friend are number ten" Joe paused looking at Jenna who was checking out Suguru. Suguru in turn seemed to be doing the same to Jenna.

Joe rolled his eyes and continued, " We came here for a couple of reasons. One: We need to warn you that your powers can be deadly for you if you push yourself to hard. Two: There are two guys out there" he said grabbing two pictures out of his back pocket and handing them to Shuichi. "Those two guys have powers like us but they have already killed two people and they are after the rest of us so stay clear of them. And Three: Something has gone wrong with the planet and we are pretty sure it's up to us to fix it, we just don't know what or how."

When Joe finished he felt he had been perfectly clear. He didn't seem to notice that he had opened up about a thousand more questions than he had actually answered. He glanced around at the bewildered looks on everybody's faces with casual annoyance.

Shuichi felt like he was about to faint. The parts of Joe's speech he did understand didn't sound good; as a matter of fact it sounded downright awful. This had to be some kind of a joke. A very unfunny joke.

"How do I know you are telling the truth?" Shuichi wanted more than anything for this to be all some stupid joke.

Joe perked up an eyebrow, "Are you slow or something? Did you see what I just did to trigger over here." He said motioning to K who was testing to see if his gun was still too hot to handle.

With a million questions wanting to be asked Shuichi felt that one seemed to have priority over the others, "What do you mean my powers are deadly?"

"No matter what you do it has an effect on your body. That's part of the reason we came here today. If we can show you what we already know, can prevent another unfortunate incident." Joe explained.

"Another?" K interrupted wile eyeing up Joe. He didn't like the fact this man was irritatingly vague with all of his answers.

"Yea, Guy named Josh. Very nice boy. He's dead now." Joe said in his matter-of-fact way.

"I don't understand any of this. You're not making any sense! Who are you people really?" Shuichi was getting cranky.

"You are one of us. " Jenna spoke in a misty voice from the other corner of the room. "I saw you in my dreams last night. Each of us has awoken up to discover that there is more to the universe than we knew before."

"We found you through Jenna here." Joe explained wile motioning to Jenna "She sees things, but since she's not actually talking to the voices in her head, we listen to what she has to say."

"You know, you really do suck gramps." Jenna spat losing all her fake misty calm.

Joe spat back," Stop acting like your some kind of psychic. It freaks me out when you do that!"

"Duh, Hello, I am a psychic. Gramps."

"Yea, but your not some old gypsy lady doling out fake compliments for money. Just be yourself and cut the crap, and quit calling me Gramps! You're gonna' make people think we might actually be related." Joe complained, even though he sounded an awful lot like a frustrated parent.

"Leave me alone already. I don't need you crabbing at me every chance you get, Gramps." She griped.

The others just stood there in the room watching the two of them fight. Joe and Jenna shot each other looks before realizing they were being watched. Jenna produced a card from her back pocket and handed it to Shuichi. "Sorry about that, listen, we would like you to meet the others. There's still a lot we haven't told you and I'm sure you have questions to ask us, so we will meet at your place around 7:00 tonight, OK?"

"What, Why my place?"

"It's tradition. New guy treats!" she said with a smile.

"Do I have a choice." Shuichi looked at her confused.

"No."

"You don't know where I live."

"Yes I do. The aura you gave off last night was quite spectacular during that storm."

"You're weird." Shuichi said with awe.

"Says the man with pink hair. See ya later!" she laughed heading for the door.

Joe said a quick goodbye and headed into the hall after Jenna. The halls seemed strangely free of people as they headed out of the building.

Jenna didn't notice Joe turning red until he yelled, "If you could do that the whole time why did you let me fight with security to find out where he was?"

"Oh that, I was just mad at you about the lunch thing I knew who he was the whole time I have of all of Bad Luck's albums." Jenna said wile ducking out of Joe's reach.

Joe seethed for just a moment before calming down with a light smile, "You know, you remind me of an old friend."

"Did you kill him?" she asked still keeping her distance from Joe.

"Can't seem remember, I'm all fuzzy." He said cryptically.

Back in the recording room, it took a couple of minutes before Shuichi realized what just happened. Hiro, K, and Suguru were all asking him questions at once, with all the noise they were making he couldn't hear any of them. He just sat there with his own thoughts on just how he was going to explain this to Yuki before 7:00 tonight.

* * *

The elusive plot forms. A retarded plot, but a plot none the less. Thank you readers. 


	4. The Others

The Others

Now Shuichi was left facing K and his band mates, who had a few hundred questions to ask him, half of which Shuichi had no answers for. He tried to explain everything as best he could, but nothing made any sense. Even after Shuichi zapped a few things to prove what he could do, they still kept pestering him. Suguru was complaining about how this was yet another distraction from Shuichi's work. Hiro on the other hand had a problem believing all of this he kept asking Shuichi how he managed to pull off such an elaborate practical joke. K seemed to love this situation and was pestering Shuichi to see just what he could really do in an attempt see how this new talent could somehow be capitalized on.

It wasn't until they were done recording for the day that Shuichi was able to mull over everything that Joe had told him. That's when Joe's warning about the two men, he was supposed to somehow avoid, came back to him. Shuichi pulled out the pictures and looked at them again. The one was of a man with long white hair, in his 40's with a gaunt face, who wore an expression of abject boredom. The other was of a younger scruffier looking balding man. He had a friendly face he was smiling happily for the picture. Could he really trust those two nutcases instead of the two faces in these pictures? Shuichi glanced at the backs of the pictures and noticed there were names written on the backs of each. The white haired bored man was Saifu Humboldt, and the happy man was Anthony Mengatti. Shuichi was still looking at the pictures and didn't notice Hiro had slid up behind him. Shuichi turned when he felt a rush of warmth come over him, "Oh Hiro, you scared me." He said while stuffing the pictures back in his pocket.

Hiro didn't say anything. He had the pained expression of a man who was about to be sick.

"Hiro what's wrong?" Shuichi didn't like the look he was getting from his best friend.

"Shuichi are you ok?" Hiro was at a loss as to what to do for his friend. He still had a problem believing what Shuichi could do.

"Yea, I'm fine. You don't have to worry about me." Shuichi tried to sound happier which only succeeded in making Hiro even more uneasy.

"What kind of a friend would I be if I didn't worry about you, ya idiot." Hiro quipped wile ruffling Shuichi's hair with his hand, "Do you want me to tag along tonight? Those uh.. people seemed pretty weird."

"No, I need you to be ready for after Yuki kicks me out." Shuichi laughed.

"Great, are you planning on crying again? Cause if you are I'll get my rain gear ready."

"No, but some alcohol would probably be nice, something nasty and cheap. I have a feeling there's going to be a lot of stuff I'm gonna want to forget about after tonight." He said as he started to gather his things to leave.

They said goodbye and Hiro watched his friend walk away. He was still wondering if he should follow Shuichi anyway, but he decided to trust Shuichi's decision and started out for the local liquor store just in case.

Shuichi tried to call Yuki. Really he did, but Yuki wasn't picking up. The writer had holed himself up in his office again to rewrite the last three chapters of his book after his editor had trashed them.

Shuichi hurried home. A group of loonies were about to descend upon his cranky lover and if Shuichi didn't get there in time he was sure Yuki was going to be incredibly angry with him. In his rush to head off disaster he didn't realize he was being watched from the shadows. He did feel it though; it was like a sudden rush of icy wind on a hot day, a creepy cold feeling that made him stop in his tracks. He spun around to find a man standing behind him. Shuichi's jaw dropped at the site of the man. He knew the man from the picture in his pocket. It was Siafu Humboldt. Siafu did not make any attempt to speak to Shuichi. He just stood there staring at the singer with a greasy grin curling at his lips. His smile was worse than the apathetic look from the picture. Shuichi backed up a few paces. Siafu made no attempt to follow he just kept grinning at Shuichi with a secret glittering behind his icy gray eyes. That's when Shuichi turned and ran. He didn't know why but he felt the need to put as much distance between him and that stranger as he possibly could. The image of that smiling face burned in his mind as he ran home.

A figure stepped out of the nearby alleyway and walked up behind Siafu. The man spoke in Italian, "Hey, boss wasn't that the guy?"

Siafu nodded, but did not turn to face the man speaking to him.

Anthony hesitated. He always did when he questioned Siafu. He was never quite sure when Siafu would turn nasty on him, "You had him, why didn't you kill him?"

"Anthony you really are an idiot, did you feel the power coming off of him?" Siafu said smoothly. "There's no one alive who can take that boy down. There's only two things that can destroy him and those are, the Id or himself."

Joe looked around to see if anybody was watching them, "You gonna' make him self destruct like ya did that Josh kid?"

"We may not have to. I think this one may understand our position with a bit of encouragement."

Anthony smiled, "So, your gonna need me to look up his family and friends."

Siafu nodded still not turning to face the other man, "Yes, just find them for now, and Tony, please keep a low profile. The others are going to be watching for us and were not ready to deal with all them right now." He said with an air of exhaustion.

"Sure thing boss." Anthony turned and headed back to the alley he had emerged from, "I'll catch ya later."

Shuichi had made it home. He burst through the door winded from his run, only to come face to face with a very angry Yuki.

Yuki didn't say anything he just stared down at Shuichi like he as going to kill him. A quick glance around at the living room gave Shuichi the reason behind this glare. The apartment was full of strangers who had already made themselves at home. They came complete with loads of odd-looking equipment already set up. He noticed Jenna on the phone placing an order for food. Joe and somebody else were sitting on the couch, and another man was fiddling with a black box covered in knobs and buttons.

"Shuichi!" Jenna screeched as she ran up to him and gave him a hug.

"Uh, hi." He said weakly never taking his eyes off of his glaring lover.

Jenna ignored Yuki and grabbed Shuichi by the hand to drag him over to the man playing with the ominous looking black box. "Shuichi, I want you to meet Todd Gritton." She said excitedly.

Todd was a young man in his 20's with wild brown hair and glasses. He looked up at Shuichi, "Nice to meet you." He said before turning his attention to the box again.

"Oh and that other guy on the couch is Koutarou Deusche." Jenna said as she pointed to the man sitting on the couch next to Joe. Koutarou was a Japanese boy, who looked about 18 years old.

Kou looked up at Shuichi and gave a nod, "Hey newbie. I love your music."

"Thanks." Shuichi replied happy to meet a fan that wasn't rabid. Shuichi turned his attention to Yuki who was now rummaging through the fridge for a beer.

After taking his first sip Yuki announced, "Ok you've all met each other now will you people please leave. All of you" he added looking at Shuichi making no mistake that he meant him as well.

Joe, who had been watching Yuki carefully from his seat on the couch, now stood up to face the irritated novelist, "Wow you are one really grumpy guy. Listen Cracker Jack. This really isn't the kid's fault. We are only going to be in your hair until we can explain everything to him. He's in danger as long as he doesn't understand the limits of his powers."

Yuki's resolve faltered at Joe's words, "What do you mean by 'in danger'?"

Joe walked over to Shuichi and put a hand on his shoulder, "It's just like I said. We have discovered that our powers go beyond what our bodies can handle. If we use our powers too much too fast we can burn out."

Todd was wrapping a black band covered with wires around Shuichi's arm. Shuichi looked at Joe questioningly, "What the hell is this guy doing?"

"That's just to test what level your powers are at. Todd is our official tech geek. He designed most of the equipment here." Joe said.

"Most of which was tested on me." moaned Koutarou from the couch, "Hey Todd did you fix that thing after you nearly fried me?"

Shuichi looked in the armband with horror.

"I did that on purpose, because you only open your mouth when you have something stupid to say." Todd said as he tweaked the dials on the machine.

Jenna was playing with another box full of gauges and buttons. She had a look of intense concentration on her face. Suddenly she shouted, "Oh my god!"

Shuichi nearly jumped out of the chair he was sitting in, "What? What does it say?"

Jenna shook her head. "I don't know. I have no idea what this thing does, but lookit the cool colors it makes when you do this!"

Todd looked up from his box and whined, "Will somebody please get her away from my stuff!"

"Don't be such a scaredy cat. I wasn't going to break it…. This time…" Jenna puffed dejectedly.

"You are a danger to yourself and others." Todd snapped.

Yuki watched in horror as his quiet evening he had planned went down in a blaze of glory amidst the loonies all around him. "So are you people leaving soon? I would really like my house back."

"This wont take long." Todd answered, "We have found that when we drag people back to the army base they tend to freak out when they see the equipment. They panic and think they are going to be dissected or something. We get a much better readings when the subjects are at home."

Joe started to question Yuki, "Hey, so you're his roommate eh? Can you tell us when he figured out his powers?"

Yuki decided to answer the question since he was willing to do whatever it took to get these people out of his apartment, "Yea he broke a light bulb, fried my remote control, then spent the better part of the night hanging out on the balcony during a thunderstorm."

"That's it?" asked Joe watching the black box with Todd.

Yuki remembered what had happened last night like a bad dream, "I have a question for you now, do all of you hang out in thunderstorms or is it just Shuichi's special death wish?"

"What are you talking about?" Joe said fishing in his pocket for his lighter.

"Last night. He got all weird and spent half the night on the balcony during a thunderstorm." Yuki was now worried that bringing this up was a mistake.

Joe started pacing around the room, "Wait a minute. Hey Jenna what were you going on about when you saw his aura last night?"

Jenna looked up from the equipment she was still playing with, "His aura lit up the whole area. It was a huge display of raw power. The biggest I've ever seen." She chirped.

Joe thought for a bit more and turned to Todd, "Hey Todd, look up last night's weather for me. I want a satellite reading for this area." They watched as the computer model of the weather showed a green blob appear out of nowhere and disappear.

Jenna was looking over their shoulders and pointed to the green blob on the screen. "That's his power right there."

Yuki had just about had his limit. These people were freaks to say the least, "So you really are a bunch of nuts. That's the thunderstorm. The one from last night that Shuichi was in. Are you sure your guys aren't' from the local sanitarium?

"We're from the army base." Koutarou said from the couch.

"Did you escape or did they let you out?" Yuki asked glaring at Joe.

"Oh so now you're a funny man?" Joe shot back at him.

"That was no storm that my friend was Shuichi's power." Todd said pointing to the monitor.

Yuki and Joe looked at Shuichi. "This little pipsqueak caused all that? That storm was over 4 city blocks!" Joe was beaming at Shuichi like some wonderful new toy.

* * *

Hi, I was on vacation so this took longer than normal to get out. Sorry! The next chapter is mostly written so I will have it up real soon. 

Thanks Readers! And a big wave to all those who reviewed the story!


	5. The Gathering Storm

Hi, all I if you are reading this I want to say thanks for suffering through my writing. I have been working hard to get the whole outline of this story in shape, so it took me awile to get this chapter up.

* * *

The Gathering Storm

Shuichi saw the gleam in Joe's eye and started to back away, "What the hell are you talking about?" he stammered

Joe advanced on Shuichi, "Shuichi, That storm the other night. You made it."

Shuichi just looked at Joe in disbelief. Joe continued while starting to pace the room, "Wow. This is great! I didn't know our powers could be that strong."

"Our powers aren't that strong, only his." Todd said as he poked at the band around Shuichi's arm. "I think it has something to do with how little he used his brain before. Lots of room to work with." Todd continued as he tapped impatiently at one of the dials on the box.

"Hey there's no need to be insulting!" Shuichi spat.

Todd ignored the comment as studied Shuichi for a few moments, "Shuichi did you feel the storm coming before it happened?"

"Well actually yea. Why?"

Jenna marched over to face Shuichi she bore a wild look in here eyes, "It was because only part of you wants to understand what you already know. The mind and soul were locked in turmoil that created a storm from within that manifested as a real storm of pure aura."

Joe groaned and looked up at the ceiling before he turned to face Yuki, "You'll have to excuse Jenna. She speaks in another language. The problem is we have no idea what language it is. I think it's hippie. I don't know anybody who speaks hippie anymore."

Jenna turned to Joe, she was about to fire back a comment, when the doorbell rang. The food she ordered had arrived. She grabbed Shuichi's wallet from his back pocket before he could stop her with a quick 'thanks' and hurried for the door.

Shuichi took a moment to register what happened, "Hey! That the hell do you think you're doing, you nutty…"

"I told you new guy always treats, didn't I?" She interrupted as she paid for the food and tossed Shuichi's now empty wallet back to him.

After everybody had started eating Joe turned to Shuichi, "Shuichi, I need to see one of your storms. I want you to call one up."

"I don't know how." Shuichi said with a mouthful.

Joe dug into a box of rice, "I think you do. It should be easy, just remember how you felt when you felt the last storm approaching."

"I felt like shit. I kept seeing images in my mind, but I couldn't make them out. I felt like part of me didn't want to know what I was thinking. Like part of me wanted to block them out." Shuichi said as the memories from last night flashed in his mind it gave him a slight shiver.

Jenna bit her lip. Kuo noticed she was struggling with something she wanted to say. She noticed him looking at her, "Jenna what's wrong? If you know something you better tell us."

Jenna didn't answer. She knew what Shuichi was talking about. She didn't want to admit it but she also struggled with the same nightmares that she was unable to face.

Joe was now pleading with Shuichi, "Just try it."

"No, I can't do it. Leave me alone you crazy old man."

"Yes you can!"

Jenna put down the tub of pork-fried rice she was working on, "Shuichi you are going to have to face those visions at some point. You are at risk until you accept them."

Shuichi sighed, he really didn't want to do this, but it seems that these people weren't going anywhere unless he agreed to give what they wanted. He stood up walked over to the window. He closed his eye and for a moment nothing happened. He was about to give up when he began to feel the something tugging at his thoughts again. It was a nagging urgency that he didn't want to answer. When he opened his eyes he the restlessness had returned. The hum in the back of his head started. It was driving him mad. He turned to the others, "I don't want to do this. Do you have any idea how bad my head hurts after one of these storms? I can't do it!"

"Your head hurts because you are an idiot. Now concentrate." Joe growled.

Shuichi turned back to the window. "Bastard", he muttered under his breath. He turned his attention to the window again.

Yuki watched in horror as dark clouds began to gather on the horizon.

The wind started to kick up as the clouds bore down on the city. Shuichi was still concentrating as the first flicker of lightning lit the room followed by the rumbling growl.

Shuichi looked at the storm. It felt so good to see it. He found himself aware of things he had never noticed before. The smell of the humidity in the air, the drop the feel of the drop in pressure as the clouds gathered. He didn't have to think about anything else. He was letting his mind be washed clean by the drenching rain. Shuichi was once again wrapped in the power of his own storm. He started for the balcony door and fidgeted with the lock in an attempt to get outside.

Yuki didn't actually believe what these people were sane. He was hoping they would have exhausted themselves with questions and gone home by now and he was certainly did not want to have a replay of last night. These nutters were going to have to find another guinea pig to play with. Yuki rushed over and grabbed his hands to stop him from going outside, "Shu don't. Not again."

"Let him go. I want to see what happens." Joe insisted.

Yuki glared at the old man, "No. This little experiment is over. Last time he almost got electrocuted, and his attitude gets really pissy when he's out there."

"His attitude gets bad, because he's not used to the stress on his body." Joe shot back.

"Isn't that all the more reason to stop?" Yuki tuned as he noticed a sudden rush of wind in the room.

While they were arguing Shuichi unlocked the door and had made his way out to the end of the balcony. The storm broke in full force over the city. The wind and ran lashed and swirled with more intensity than the last time.

Todd stood up as all the gauges on his box pinned in the ominous looking red zones and yelled in a panic, "You guys need to pull him in. He's redlining!"

"What?" came four voices in reply.

"He's burning out, out there it's too much for his body to handle. Stop him NOW!" Todd yelled over the howling of the wind.

Joe fought the winds to reach Shuichi on the balcony. "Shuichi, You need to stop. That's enough." Joe went to touch Shuichi and was immediately blown back by a blast of power. He found himself sitting on the floor of the balcony wondering what hit him.

Jenna rushed out into the rain next. She went to touch his shoulder and something different happened. In an instant she could see nothing but chaos. She saw a world smothered in darkness and a voice came to her. A voice like a void that echoed into itself instead of outward, it rose up above the flickering red lights that bathed a lone mountain, "Until the last one stands bathed in his own blood." These were images she was avoiding. They hit her mind with horrible clarity. She saw what she didn't want to see, what Shuichi didn't want to see. She passed out. But Shuichi didn't flinch. He kept up the raging storm. He wanted to run. The images were terrible, but if he let go now they would drown him in their pain.

Now it was Yuki's turn. He ran out and grabbed Shuichi just as he did the night before. And dragged him back into the house.

Shuichi felt the arms lock around him. He it was like being forced out of the shower just when you were enjoying yourself. He struggled against Yuki's hold. Joe watched with amazement as Yuki took Shuichi back into the house. Only When Shuichi stopped struggling against him, did Yuki relax his grip.

"Thanks Yuki." He said quietly. And buried his head into Yuki's chest. Yuki felt Shuichi shivering and he noticed his lover had gone deathly pale.

Yuki turned is attention from Shuichi when they heard clapping. Joe was looking with awe and amazement at the two of them, "So I figured you two were more than just roommates." He said watching Todd for a reaction. Todd gave a pained look and shook his head. Kou rushed out to get Jenna.

"Todd, you better come look at her." Kou yelled from the balcony.

Todd felt his stomach drop. "What happened."

Jenna had turned white. She was shaking. Todd looked at her "Jenna, Jenna are you ok?"

She looked up at him weakly before doubling over and throwing up. Kou panicked, "Jenna!"

"I'm fine. Leave me alone." as she pushed them away from her. She noticed Shuichi, who was still being held by Yuki, was looking just as bad as she felt.

Yuki realized all eyes were on them looked around the room. "Any of you got a problem with us?"

Joe was the first to answer, "No, Todd might, but I could care less. I'm more interested in the fact you were able to bring him in like that."

"What do you mean?" Yuki said narrowing his eyes at Joe.

"Ya see. With his power none of us could touch him out there. You saw what happened to me out there, but he let you bring him back. You my friend are the only thing keeping that pink haired Armageddon in check. Without you he would have burnt out on his own juice last night. That's what happened to Josh."

Yuki finally let go of Shuichi, who was now holding his head and moaning in pain as he started to stagger over to the couch. His head hurt so bad he could barely stand up. Yuki caught him just as his knees gave way. That's when a hollow voice caught everybody's attention.

"It stirs in the east." It was Jenna, but voice was distant and cold, "The earth itself has felt it and cried for help. We are the one's who heard. There is something older that stirs in the heart of the mountain. A darkness struggles to be born that does not belong here and it has found it's allies. The earth dance will die with the coming of the ID." As her voice trailed off she seemed to find herself again. She turned and buried her head in Todd's chest, "I saw it! Oh god it was horrible." her voice cracked and broke into sobs.

* * *

Thanks readers! 


	6. Good Drugs

Good Drugs

A few days had passed since the incident with the storm. Both Shuichi and Jenna had some problems getting over that night. Jenna didn't come around for a wile. Joe said she was having nightmares and needed some time. To Yuki's dismay, the other nut balls came over on a regular basis to under the guise of training Shuichi. Yuki had a feeling they just wanted somewhere they could all freeload food off of.

Joe explained that the government knew about them, but didn't want to officially acknowledge them. It wasn't protocol to go owning up to a bunch of people with crazy powers predicting a possible end of the world. Joe knew a lot of people in the military and was able to see that they were free to peruse their own investigation as long as they promised not to bother anybody.

As far as Yuki could figure their powers included blasting things with energy, heating things up, they could feel the presence of people around them. Shuichi could feel a difference depending on what the person was feeling at the time. Koutarou had the power of being incredibly annoying, a power Yuki suspected Shuichi of having all his life. They all had creepy visions, but Shuichi and Jenna were the only ones who could actually make out what they were seeing and Jenna was just weird. Shuichi had proven to be the more powerful than all of all of them put together, but he knew the least about how to control his powers, hence the stupid training sessions.

They tried to get Shuichi to visit the base, but Yuki flatly forbade it. Yuki only grudgingly allowed them to come over when he didn't have to be home.

Yuki also had other problems to cope with. He had trouble fighting urges to make Shuichi stay home all the time. Yuki knew it wasn't healthy to go around saying he owned Shuichi, but he couldn't help himself Shuichi was his. He knew he was being silly, but the felt like it was only a matter of time before his lover would get bored start to drift away from him. He knew Shuichi loved him, but there were so many other distractions lately; that they didn't have the time to spend with each other anymore and that was starting to take its toll on Yuki. (1)

Then there was also that unnerving sensation he'd been getting. It felt like he was being watched every once in a wile. It wasn't much to think about at first, but after his last trip to the store he could have sworn there was something in the shadows of the alley watching him. Yuki ran into the alley to find whomever it was, but instead he knocked over a tourist. The man just smiled at him as he brushed himself off. He tried to speak to Yuki in Italian; as soon as Yuki got away from the man he found his quarry was gone.

Oh yes, paranoia and hallucinations are both symptoms of quite a few undesirable diseases and that's why Yuki was visiting his therapist today. Thankfully he didn't need to go on a regular basis anymore, but sometimes when the stress got too much he would find himself sitting in her waiting room reading the same beat up National Geographic magazine. This doctor must have to really liked National Geographic, since it was the only magazine in the waiting room. Yuki must have known every article by heart. Articles about modern slavery, and desperate people in desperate places, how the planet was being destroyed by industrialized nations, and cute animals on the brink of extinction. Not to mention the ones about natural disasters, genocides, and bloody wars. Yuki wondered if this wasn't some ploy to get him depressed before seeing the doctor so she could prescribe him more medication.

He told the doctor about everything but Shuichi's weird powers. He felt it was better to keep such things under wraps when talking to somebody who could have you committed for a long, long time.  
"Oh, Mr. Uesugi I have a new prescription I want you to try." She said as she handed him an indecipherable piece of paper. Yuki looked at it in an attempt to read it, then realized it was upside-down, no wait it wasn't, he had it right before. He turned it again, still unreadable. He wondered what language it was written in, "What is it?"

"It's great stuff. You'll see when it kicks in."

Yuki looked at her, "What?"

She stood there smiling and blinking. Yuki hated it when she did that it always scared him to death. He often wondered just how many of these prescriptions she had written for herself.

"Does it have any side effects?"

"Yes, Some patients experience, loss of hair, anal warts, debilitating constipation, blindness, liver dysfunction, and death. If you experience any of those side effects you should call me."

Yuki cringed, "Anal warts? Hey wait a minute, how am I supposed to call you if I experience death?"

She ignored him, "Oh, and if you start to feel like you want to kill somebody you need to back off on the dosage."

"That's weird I haven't taken a single dose and already I feel like killing somebody. How much is the drug company paying you to prescribe this stuff?"

That's when Yuki noticed a flicker of panic crack in plastered-on smile of her face. In a flash she pushed him out of the office door and with a quick, "Have a nice day!" She was gone. Yuki was left standing there in the waiting room facing the other patients who were all reading National Geographic magazines and grinning manically. Oh no, the thought as scenes from the movie "The Pod People" flashed in his mind, he'd seen how this story ends. He deposited the prescription in the trash and left the office in a hurry.

When Yuki got home he had no idea he was about to step into a war zone. The others had come over to train Shuichi, but the training had degraded into a game, that was sort of half tag and half old west style shootout, using mild power blasts and idiots. Bolts of power flickered in every direction. Shuichi ran past Yuki with his hair smoking and hid behind his lover not realizing this was a bad idea, because Jenna's was firing on him and her aim was awful to say the least. Yuki was hit with a blast right in the stomach knocking him off his feet. Luckily he landed on Shuichi, although Shuichi didn't see it that way.

"Double points, because I got the both of you with one shot!" Jenna shouted as she turned to run but Yuki grabbed her by the collar of her shirt.

He bore the look of death in his eyes. The threat registered she gave him her best fearful grin. "I am so sorry Mr. Uesugi please don't kill me."

"What the hell are you mongoloids doing here?" Yuki spat through gritted teeth.

"We came to train Shuichi, and Todd wanted run a few tests on you." She yelled into the apartment, "Hey Todd! Yuki's back."

Yuki dropped Jenna and growled, "I don't have time to entertain kids. Why don't you go play with traffic?"

Todd was shoving the monitor cuff in Kou's hands. There was a bit of a struggle since neither one wanted to approach Yuki. Kou lost and was about to put a cuff on Yuki's arm when Yuki stopped him with a look.

Kou jumped back a few steps as Todd cleared his throat. "Listen Yuki, I just need to get a few readings. I think you may have powers as well." Todd slunk back and pointed at Yuki, "See it's that look. You do have powers. I know it."

Shuichi cleared his throat and explained, "No, guys that's his trademark glare. He actually just wants to kill you. If he had access to something blunt he would have beaten you to death by now."

"Oh I see." Said Todd taking another step back.

Joe walked in and he also looked like he was in a very bad mood when noticed Yuki's scowl, "Hey, don't you dare give me that look unless you intend to back it up."

"Who says I wont?" Yuki shot back.

"Who do you think you are talking too?" For the first time Shuichi saw what Joe looked like when he lost his cool. Yuki didn't know that Joe was about to take all the frustrations of his day out on him.

Yuki's voice was rising in anger, " I know exactly who you are. I'm talking to a…"

Jenna jumped in between the two men. "I made some tea. Why don't you guys have some?"

Joe looked down at her and asked hopefully, "With a shot of bourbon?"

Jenna gave him a look of disgust, "Ew, bourbon in green tea? You musta' had a bad day."

Yuki lifted an eyebrow, "You are offering me my own tea?"

"Come on it's getting cold." Everybody accept Shuichi and Koutarou grudgingly followed her into the kitchen.

Shuichi whispered to Kou "That was close. Joe has no idea what Yuki's capable of"

Kou looked at Shuichi with his eyebrows raised, "You think she did that for Joe's sake? Shuichi, Joe fought for six years in the Vietnam War. He's killed more people than he can count, and he's prone to occasional flashbacks."

Shuichi looked at Kou in shock, "Flashbacks?"

"Yea, We know something really bad happened to him over there. We are all too afraid to ask about it, but it has something to do with that lighter he carries around even though it's empty and he doesn't smoke."

Shuichi looked at Joe, who had instantly lost all hint of anger and was now picking on Yuki about being a crab.

"You should have seen him flip out when Josh died. Josh didn't have parents; him and his sister were orphans. Josh raised his sister by himself. When Siafu had her killed, Josh couldn't take it he just burned out with grief. When Joe found out what happened, he went into full flashback mode. He kept barking orders and screaming about the chopper being down. It wasn't pretty." Kou said with a shudder.

"Hey," Joe called to Kou and Shuichi, "As soon as you two love birds are done flirting you can join us any time. I've got something you need to hear."

"What now?" Shuichi's felt his stomach twist.

"It's about those two pictures I gave you. We have just figured out that those two guys are murdering people all over the country for some reason and we think they are following you."

A startled "What?" came from both Yuki and Shuichi.

"We didn't know, but the both of them have learned to cloak their powers so Jenna can't find them unless she's only a few feet away. Yesterday she found Anthony about a block from here. You need to make sure Yuki doesn't go anywhere alone."

"Why me?" groaned Yuki.

"He's probably going to use you to get to Shuichi. He already knows that he's not powerful enough to stop you. I expect he's going to try to make contact with you soon."

Shuichi dove from the spot to glomp onto Yuki and wailed, "Yuki's gonna die and it's all my fault!" Then switched into scary Shuichi mode, "Don't worry I'll save you. I'll annihilate anybody that dares to even come near y…"

Yuki put a hand over Shuichi's mouth successfully muffling Shuichi's diatribe, "What does he want?"

Joe shrugged, "You know the old saying, if you can't beat em' threaten their friends until you get them to join forces with you."

"That's not how the saying goes." Kou chastised.

"Shut up Kou." Ordered Joe before turning to Shuichi, "Shuichi listen, Siafu isn't really powerful at all. He relies on surprise and coercion, so with one of us here watching things for you I promise Siafu won't make a move."

The thought of seeing even more of the idiot posse did not sit well with Yuki, "Hey, is this just a ploy so that you guys have a better excuse to bum around here mooching off of us?"

"No" replied Jenna, "Mooching off of you is just an extra perk."

-------

The next day Shuichi did go back to work, although he called Yuki almost every five minutes to check on him. Shuichi wasn't sure how he was going to concentrate on work while he was still so terribly worried about Yuki's safety. Today was Todd's turn to guard Yuki, and Todd it turns out Todd was a closet homophobe and completely petrified of gay people. The way he refused to turn his back on either Shuichi or Yuki was humorous to say the least. He was one of those straight guys who was afraid that anybody gay was going to attack him like a horny rabid animal. This only got better when Yuki realized what was going on and made every attempt to freak Todd out by flirting with him.

Shuichi got to work late as usual only to find something else was out of place. Hiro was late and he hadn't called in yet. K had just dialed Hiro's phone number to check on him when Shuichi grabbed the phone.

"Hey, Hiro? Are you ok?

Hiro's answer was faltering, "Shuichi? Uh Hi, I'm fine I just have a cold."

"You don't sound like you have a cold."

"See I'm almost better already, really I'm fine I'll be in tomorrow."

"I'm coming over to see you."

"No!" Hiro yelled, Uh I mean, I don't want you to get sick too. I'm fine OK. Bye!"

Hiro had hung up the phone on Shuichi. Shuichi looked at the phone curiously and handed it back to K. "K since Hiro's not here can I have the day off to go see him?" asked Shuichi.

"No."

"Pretty please? We can't really work anyway when we are one man short." Shuichi turned on the puppy dog eyes.

K sighed and ran his hand through his hair, "Fine whatever, just go before I shoot you."

Shuichi left and went straight to Hiro's thinking to himself "Fine my ass. He didn't sound fine one bit." He got to Hiro's door and knocked. "Hiro are you in there?"

He heard muffled thumping and Hiro's voice, "Shuichi get out of here."

"Hiro are you ok! Hiro!"

Shuichi RUN!" Hiro yelled as the door opened. Shuichi's jaw dropped as Siafu greeted him at his best friends door.

* * *

(1)I know myYuki isreally OOC and here it seems even worse and he is, but if you check manga number 12 you will see that Yuki can be very posessive of Shuichi at times. 

I know I suck. I want to thank each and every person who took time out to read this. I really do owe you.

This story got a bit hairier than I thought it was going to be. I won't leave Shuichi and Hiro hanging like this for long. If there are things you are confused about you are free to e-mail me. I can't fill in plot holes if I don't know where they are!


	7. Waking Nightmare

Waking nightmare

"Shuichi, welcome to the party!" Siafu mused with a sickening smile.

Shuichi stared in stunned silence for a few seconds before finding his voice, "Where's Hiro?"

Siafu saw that Shuichi was powering up for a large blast and smiled, "Do you really think you can save Hiro that way?"

Something was happening to Shuichi. A strange icy cold washed over him. It felt like fingers colder than death gripping his heart, numbing him. He felt detached from what was happening around him. No matter how he struggled to gain his senses he couldn't. A dizzying wave of nausea washed over him as he struggled to remain standing.

Anthony was in the kitchen holding Hiro with a knife to his throat. Hiro wasn't looking very good. He was panting heavily, but Shuichi couldn't tell if he was hurt or not. "Your friend has a pretty head you wouldn't want him to lose it now do you?"

Shuichi looked at Tony and Hiro.

Siafu spoke again, "Shuichi, That knife he's holding is really just for show. You know as well as I do he doesn't need it to kill your friend." Siafu kept circling around Shuichi like a panther looking for a moment to strike.

"Did you know that both the heart and the brain work off of electrical impulses? Even better, do you know what happens when those impulses get disrupted?" Hiro started to gasp for breath and clutching his chest.

"No!" Shuichi roared, "Stop it!" He hit Anthony with a blast that sent him slamming back into the cabinets behind him. Hiro slumped to the floor. Anthony had figured out how to block attacks, but Shuichi's blast still took him off guard. Even with all the precautions Siafu had taken to weaken Shuichi, the he was still dangerous. Anthonly shook himself off with a puff, "Wow, you pretty hit hard for a faggot."

"Fucking coward." Hiro muttered as rolled onto his back and kicked Anthony right in the groin.

Anthony grabbed his knife from the floor, "Shut up you!" Anthony concentrated on the spot in the center of Hiro's chest. He could see Hiro's heart struggling to beat like a frightened rabbit. Hiro wheezed as he struggled with the crushing sensation in his chest. Anthony dug the point of the knife into underside of Hiro's chin breaking the surface of the skin. Drips of blood started to slide down the edge of the knife.

"Stop it! Leave him alone!" Shuichi yelled.

"That's enough Tony. We are here to talk, remember?" Siafu smiled again. So far they had been lucky that Shuichi wasn't aware of his own power. Anthony backed away from Hiro, who lay on the floor trying to regain his breath.

"You can't get the both of us at once, Shuichi. All we want to do is talk to you. I promise we will not hurt your friend if you hear us out." Siafu's words slithered like dripping mud.

"Why should I believe you? From what I hear you've had no problem killing tons of people. Why stop now?" Shuichi spat.

"The ID is something like a spirit. To be born here in this world it needs flesh. A lot of flesh it's a small price to pay for cleansing the world. Don't you think?" Siafu's movements were smooth. He knew he had to be careful to keep Shuichi disoriented in order to prevent him from using his full powers.

"Leave me alone! I don't want to talk to filth like you." Shuichi said with as much disgust as he could muster.

"Not until you've seen what I have to show you. You see I have a special hitch to my powers as well. I can show you the world. I can show you the pain and suffering I have seen. And I can show you exactly what I am doing to fix all of that pain."

Siafu grabbed Shuich's head with both his hands and stared into Shuich's eyes. Hiro yelled as Shuichi's eyes went blank. He twisted and struggled in Siafu's grasp.

Scenes ripped through Shuichi's mind. He was taken to places he never knew existed. He saw everything from child slavery, the horror of the tragedy in Uganda and Zimbabwe. The saw the fear and terror in Tibet, he saw mothers crying because they had no food for their starving babies, and people fighting for what they believed in and dying all the same. All the most terrible things in the world all at once poured into Shuichi's mind. It was too much for one mind to take in all at once. As the scenes choked his mind the pain emptied his heart and soul of emotion.

He heard Siafu's voice rise up over the agony of the people he was witnessing, "I tried to fight it when I first found my place in the world. I fought hard against injustice. I went into the heart of hell and created a village for those I rescued from a horrible war. I called it Eden, but one day I woke up to the sounds of screaming. The brainwashed child soldiers came and killed all of them even the tiniest of babies. The world is evil. It is drenched with the blood of the innocent. We need a new world, a fresh start. You see what I mean Shuichi?"

The vision changed Shuichi saw the Id again, it rose up from a mountain with a cry that drew in instead of echoed out. The Id drew everything into itself until all became nothing. Shuichi found himself in a black void with nothing all around him. Then Siafu's voice, "This is the place where it will all begin again. Once the Id is fed it will stop all those horrors you saw. It will end the suffering in the world. The pain." Siafu's voice tailed away.

Shuichi was left in the empty place with his soul laid bare by what he had just seen. He felt so cold. He feared he would never be warm again. Siafu let go of Shuichi's head and he slumped to the ground in a heap. He only vaguely heard Hiro screaming his name in a panic. He felt something even colder slide up close to his face, "Shuichi think about it. Together we could fix all that's wrong with this world. Don't you want to stop the pain?" Shuichi weakly opened his eyes and said nothing.

Siafu frowned, "If you decide to get in my way remember, you can't protect everybody from me. You have friends, family, and a special loved one to think about. It would be a shame if your actions resulted in them getting hurt."

With that the ice next to Shuichi's face was gone. He didn't know how long he lay there on the ground before he felt something warm around him. Something so wonderfully warm. It was enough to melt the ice around his heart and soul. Slowly he opened his eyes to see Hiro. Shuichi frowned as his eyes focused on the blood smeared all over his friend's neck. It was a tiny cut but it bled so much. Shuichi reached up to touch Hiro to make sure his friend was actually real and ok.

"Shuichi what happened? Are you OK?" Hiro's face was twisted in fear as Shuichi struggled to sit up, "Shuichi say something!"

"I'm OK." Shuichi found it hard to speak. He had to force the words to come. He still felt so horribly empty. He looked at his best friend, who was hurt because of him. Hiro could have been killed and it would have been all his fault.

"Shuichi, what did that asshole do to you?" Hiro searched Shuichi's eyes, he could see that something was wrong with his friend, but the wounds inflicted were too deep to see with one's eyes.

"Hiro are you ok?" Shuichi wasn't meeting Hiro's eyes anymore.

"I'm fine. It's just a scratch." He said still trying to get Shuichi to look him in the eyes again.

"What about your chest?"

"Oh, that." Hiro said quietly remembering the pain that shot through his system, "I don't know what that guy did, but I'm ok now."

Shuichi stood up shakily. Hiro tried to stop him but Shuichi pushed him away, "I've gotta go."

"Where the hell do you think you're going? Shuichi what's wrong?" Hiro grabbed Shuichi's arm, but Shuichi wrenched it from his grasp and ran out of the apartment.

* * *

This is one of two chapters I have done. I wanted to get them up before I left for vacation. I hope you like them. 


	8. Where the Broken Dreams Go

This is dedicated to someone I lost a long time ago. Someone for whom the pain flowed until my soul ran dry, till something broke down deep inside. Every once in a wile, though I have forgotten how to cry, the hole you left behind still kind of leaks from time to time.

* * *

Shock 8

The city is an amazing place. So many people every minute singing notes in a song they are not aware they are a part of. Weaving together the music of people loving, people living, people dying, and all the other bits in between. That's how big cities sort of take on a soul of their own.

The legendary culture, arts, restaurants, plays, and the tiny every day short stories of the lives of each and every person are all part of that soul. Like all good souls the city has many bright and wonderful faces to show you, but today this story isn't taking you to one of those, this story is taking you to the face nobody really wants to look at. We are going just under the shining brilliance of the city, to stare at the cracked gray foundation of the underside.

Specifically the area under the grand bridge where the hulking iron bleeds ruddy rusty lines down the concrete supports. This is the place where the sound of the traffic drones out as a constant rumbling moan. Where the graffiti speaks with letters nobody wants to understand, because it is the language of desperation. It is here that a young man with pink hair sits alone. He knows exactly where he is, but he is still lost and unseen.

It is easy to go unseen here, because this is the place where the people don't look each other in the eyes. They just bustle past each other quickly. They don't stop, because if they did, oh god, if they did they might be seen or worse. They may actually see those around them and in those stranger's eyes they will see themselves reflected and be faced with what they have become. Nobody here wants that.

The young man is still here rotting in despair. He does not know where to turn at this point. He has seen the past and his place in it, as well as a frightening future he feels cannot stop. So he did the only understandable thing to do, he ran. He ran in fear for a world he wasn't sure he wanted to save anymore.

With a shrug and a sigh the others who passed by marked him as somebody else's problem. Little did they know that the problem sitting on those small shoulders was not somebody else's problem, but everybody's. Had they known it was the fate of the world he was struggling with, maybe they might have reacted differently, then again, maybe not.

But today there was at least one man who decided to see the young man sitting there looking terribly out of place. One old man, who was not ashamed of what he had become. An old man who had a bit of time before the sunset, carefully weighed his options. Could he make it better or would he just make it worse? There was only one way to find out, so he leaned his battered fishing pole against the cold concrete pillar and sat down next to the small man with pink hair.

Shuichi looked up at the bum who slumped down beside him.

"Hey kid. This seat taken?" His voice was like gravel from lack of use. He didn't use it much wile talking to the setting sun or the fish on his line.

Shuichi raised an eyebrow, "Looks like it is now."

"What's wrong?"

Shuichi looked the old man straight in the face. His graying beard was long and matted, but his eyes held the fire of the setting sun. "I've got a question for you. You're homeless right?"

The old man was sputtered at the question, "Well you would call it homeless, but that's not quite how I see it."

Shuichi impatiently interrupted the man, "Why bother to live this life if you're only going to die anyway? Why suffer like this?"

"Oh crap a philosophical one." The bum muttered to himself, but being the kind of bum not to give up on what he started, he pressed on as best he could. "I'm alive, and so are you. As long as we are alive what does it matter? Worry about death after your dead. Don't you still have people you love? People that love you?"

This was not the answer Shuichi was looking for, "What would you say if I said no?"

"Pity. You don't look like the type to enjoy being alone."

"I don't."

The bum sighed, "Is that why you're here?"

Shuichi didn't answer. The old man looked at Shuichi carefully not sure of what needed to be said, "Listen kid, I used to have a good job I worked fifteen hours a day I was a CEO. I traveled around the world to acquire other companies so I could tear them apart and sell off the assets. I worked like a mad dog for over seventeen years."

"So why are you here now?"

"One day I was thinking how badly I wanted to fish. So I went fishing. I decided I liked it better than working so I never went back."

"What? That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. You gave up a good job and a good life to be a fishing bum?"

"Is it? I never stopped to think about it that way.", said the old man with a wistful smile. "I turned around one day and decided that what I was doing didn't make me happy. What was the point of working every day of my life so one day I could retire and fish, why not get a head start and go right to fishing?"

"Maybe because good intentions don't pay for fishing poles?" Shuichi said motioning to the battered fishing pole that looked as if it was barely holding together.

"Don't be so literal. I'm trying to impart a life lesson here."

"Sorry."

"Kid there has only been one way out of my problems and that was to muddle straight through. Life is short and as far as I know we have a very long time to be dead so why rush it? I'm not willing to see if we get another chance at this. I'm going to make the most of what I have right now and for me that's fishing on the dock and enjoying the sun setting over the sea."

"Is this the point where I'm supposed to suddenly realize that life is what you make of it and be all happy again?"

The bum looked down at Shuichi. He had tried to help people before, but nobody was as hard to figure as this poor guy, "What the hell happened to you kid?"

Shuichi hung his head and sighed, "Discovered some things about this world I never knew. Not everybody in this world lives a life where they can make choices. People are suffering. Wouldn't it be better to wipe the slate clean and end all the suffering in the world?"

The old man, being of dubious mental stability himself, did not feel he had the authority to question the sanity of others, so he just went with it, "So your worried about the whole world eh?"

Shuichi nodded staring out over the sea.

"These people you're talking about, do want to save them?"

"I guess so."

"Well that's a start. I am not going to deny there is a lot of pain in the world, but even suffering people want to live. If they really wanted die they would already be dead. Isn't it a little arrogant to make that decision for anyone?"

Shuichi picked over the words carefully and gave a tired, dark chuckle, "Just a little. I guess even if you have the power you still don't have the right to play god."

"I don't know anything about god, but know every living thing looks forward to drawing the next breath."

The old man took stock in the time of day and knew he had to get moving, "Now, if you don't mind, I have a date with my destiny." The old bum grabbed his pole slung it over his shoulder as he stood up. "You're a good kid. It was fun talking to you. Now go home." He said motioning to the place above the bridge.

Shuichi looked up for a second regarding the reddening sun that was preparing to set for the day. He looked back to say good-bye, but the bum was gone.

* * *

This chapter is kind of off the track, but I included it for my own reasons. I hope you like it. 


	9. Darkness

Darkness

Shuichi was actually happy to be back at work. He hadn't had much time for singing lately and for someone like Shuichi, well lets just say it made him no fun to be around. To Shuichi singing is almost as important as breathing. Artists, bad or good all have a need to free part of themselves through their medium. Without regular discharges of creative energy, that energy builds up and can manifest into some very destructive behavior, as we are about to see here.

Hiro and Suguru started to play. The song they were doing was one Shuichi was really excited about. He had written it for Yuki… Ok all of his songs are about Yuki, but that's why he loved them. Shuichi began to sing loud and strong with everything he had. It was like opening up his heart and setting his soul free.

It was after the first stanza of the song he began to feel strange, again. To his dismay, as he sang an uneasiness came over him. It felt like something was creeping closer to him as he sang, something dark and lonely reaching out to him from somewhere distant. Visions of a dark empty place invaded his thoughts it crept over his notions and ideas, swallowing up memories and hope. Before he knew it the darkness was all around him. It was so thick it seemed to fill his lungs, drowning him. A slap to his cheek that brought Shuichi back, startled he looked up into the concerned faces of his best mate and his manager.

"Shuichi, are you ok?" Hiro asked. Shuichi noticed he wasn't standing, but lying on the couch in the room next to the recording studio.

"What the hell." He muttered and made an attempt to sit up.

"You passed out."

"Wow I had some dream." Shuichi breathed wile running a hand through his hair.

"Shuichi. You better be taking care of yourself. If you are not I will have to make sure you do." K snapped.

"I'm fine." Shuichi insisted.

"Are you sure? It isn't exactly normal to pass out while singing." K said looking over Shuichi.

"Normal." Shuichi repeated darkly wishing his life possess even one shred of normalcy at the moment. "Won't Tohma will be on the warpath if we don't get something done today?"

"He's already on the warpath." K said as he helped Shuichi to his feet.

"Are you sure your ok?" Hiro tried again to get Shuichi to talk.

"For the last time Hiro, YES, I just want to get back to work!"

Suguru muttered to K, "He actually wants to work? He must have the plague."

Shuichi was ready to record again. He started to sing, and damn it, the same thing happened. He started to sing and he felt that darkness reach out to him. He could feel the emptiness. He struggled to fend of whatever it was. Singing with even more intensity, nothing seemed to be working. If he didn't figure out something quick he was going to lose it again. It was like the void was feeding off of him. He began to feel really angry. Anything that interfered with his singing was an enemy to be dealt with. How dare this whatever it is disturb him like this! He could feel the glances he was getting from Suguru, Hiro and K. They had picked up on the desperation in his voice as he struggled with the darkness eating away at him, but Shuichi didn't care. When the song was over Shuichi was relieved to see he was able to get through the song. He had managed to beat whatever it was for the moment, although the effort had left him winded.

"Shuichi, maybe you need a break." Hiro said as he put a hand on Shuichi's shoulder.

"No, no breaks." Shuichi panted, "I want to sing. I can beat this."

"Shuichi, beat what?" Hiro realized that something disturbing was going on with his best friend again. "What the fuck is wrong with you?

"Nothing! I didn't mean it like that." Shuichi whined. "We are too behind on our deadline to stop now. I'm just a little tired." How was he supposed to explain what was going on. Shuichi felt that if he could just sing again he could beat this thing; after all he was able to remain upright this time.

That's when Sakano came into the studio, "Shuichi, Tohma needs to speak to you again."

"Shit, What the hell does he want now?" Shuichi whined.

K cleared his throat, "He's been messing with everybody today, apparently he's in a really bad mood and he needs people to take his frustrations out on." Everybody looked at K, "What? He was yelling at me this morning about the tiny little bullet holes in his office door."

"Bad mood eh?" Shuichi snorted, "That makes two of us."

When Shuichi got to Tohma's office he made a mental promise to himself not to fly off the handle. He needed to be good and not fight with Tohma. He didn't need the head of NG on his case right now with all the other weird things going on. He took deep breath and pushed the door open.

"You wanted to see me?" He said trying to sound as innocent as he could.

"Sit down Shuichi." Tohma's voice was sharp and authoritative as ever; meaning Shuichi was going to have to work at keeping his promise to himself. "How long have you been working on your latest album?"

Shuichi honestly thought for a moment. With all the distractions lately even he had to admit the album was taking way too long.

"I'm waiting for your answer."

"I'm thinking."

"Is it painful?" Tohma questioned sarcasticly.

Shuichi reminded himself he was not going to fight with Tohma. "Well I would be working right now if somebody would stop calling me to his office when he needs somebody to bitch at."

"I wouldn't need to call you into my office and scold you like a child if you would just do what is expected of you."

Shuichi couldn't help but notice what his boss was wearing Tohma was dressed in all green and purple, before Shuichi could stop himself he blurted out, "Do you get dressed in the dark?"

"Excuse me! Listen here Mr. Shindou. I know all about your freaky parlor tricks and I am taking the cost of my hat out of your pay!"

"No problem, I pick up another one at a garage sale for you. I think Laurel and Hardy are having one this weekend."

Tohma was in a foul mood so he had no qualms about going strait for Shuichi's emotional jugular, "Ha, you think you're so talented, but in the end your still just a Ryuichi wanna' be."

"That's it!" Shuichi roared as he leapt up from his chair and dove across the desk for Tohma, "I don't need creepy powers to kick your quasi-homo-erotic ass.". In a blur of motion the two of them were on the ground wrestling, scratching, pulling hair, and basically kicking the snot out of each other. You see, Tohma is a powerful man; yes, you don't want to cross him. He can have you killed, but lucky for Shuichi, in actual hand-to-hand combat Tohma Seguchi fights like little girl and so does Shuichi.

Yuki had just made his way to the studio. He needed to pick up his Sister's birthday present that Tohma had picked up for him. He didn't want to go, but it was the least he could do after making Tohma do his shopping for him. Yuki hated birthday shopping almost as much as he hated people in general. He noticed Tohma's office door was open and Sakano was peeking in with a look of pure glee. To Yuki's disgust he noticed that the man was actually drooling!

Yuki snuck up close to him before loudly announcing "Hey Freak! Is Tohma getting changed in his office again?" Sakano eeped and ran away. That's when Yuki heard Shuichi's voice. He peaked in the door to see Shuichi and Tohma rolling on the floor both of them yowling like cats. The scene was, well it was down right erotic. For reasons known only to the author of this story, Shuichi had destroyed Tohma's suit. Tohma had only a shredded purple shirt left, but Shuichi's shirt was gone entirely. Yuki looked up at the security camera that was trained on the fight. Oh yes, he thought to himself, he would be getting a copy of this tape. But somebody was going to get hurt if he didn't stop them, not to mention he didn't want Shuichi to be all worn out for, uh, later.

Yuki swung the door open the rest of the way, "And me without my popcorn."

"Yuki!" Shuichi looked up from where Tohma had him pined to the floor.

"You two really need to do that in mud or whipped cream or something."

The two pulled apart panting and glaring at each other. Tohma had the beginnings of a black eye and Shuichi had long scratches down his face and chest.

"So, Tohma why are you trying to kick my brat's ass?" This comment was met with a barrage of he started it, he's such a so-and-so, and it was all his fault. The two of them were ready for another round. Shuichi prepared to lunge, but Yuki caught him before he could attack. "Oh no you don't, Hey Tohma you got Mika's present?"

"Yes." Tohma staggered over to his desk and tossed a box at Yuki. "Yuki, I have a headache so will you please go and take 'him' with you." He pushed a button on his phone. "Somebody get me Mr. Sakano."

"Better check the bathrooms for him. He's probably in a dark corner beating off right now." Yuki said as he dragged Shuichi out of the office.

Neither Yuki nor Shuichi said a word until they had made their way back to Bad luck's recording Studio. Out side the room Yuki turned to Shuichi. "What the hell has gotten into you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Fighting with Seguichi isn't good for your career or your health, and you know it. So what's with all the violence." Yuki said as he searched his lover's eyes.

"I-I don't know. I was so looking forward to singing today, but something weird started happening and I think I was just about to figure out what was wrong when Tohma wanted to speak to me and everything just went down hill from there."

"You're such an idiot"

"Yea, I love you too Yuki. Hey, I want to go home. If we sneak past K we should be able to get out without being shot."

"What do you mean 'we'"

Shuichi felt a familiar smooth metal barrel was pressed against his temple, "You think your going where now? You've still got work to do and no more pretending to pass out. You're going to finish this album if it kills you. Hey what happened to your shirt?"

"I wasn't pretending to pass out. And I left it in Tohma's office."

"So you and Tohma?" K pondered with a raised eyebrow.

"Ew no! Get your mind out of the gutter."

"Shuichi how long are you going to be." asked Yuki exasperatedly.

"Yuki I just need to do one more song for today. Will you please, please wait for me? I'll love you forever!"

"You are such a freak. I'll wait for you but if you are longer than twenty minutes I am going home and changing the locks on the doors."

Shuichi did sing again, and the darkness returned to him again. As he increased intensity he felt the loneliness reach our further towards him, but he wasn't going to let it win. He fought with it again, with his heart and soul, but it was no good. It was about to overtake him again. As he felt the darkness closing in he started to seethe with frustration and anger. Then he snapped. He felt his very soul scream! He had managed to tap into something deep inside of him, something that burst forth flooding his mind with an amazing blinding white light. The darkness collided with Shuichi's light. The inner turmoil had become real. For Shuichi the world around him had stopped for a second, just a moment as he unleashed everything he had. He did not feel the entire earth shudder beneath him.

Shuichi opened his eyes as he stopped singing. The lights in the building flickered for just a moment as he took stock in the frightened looks on the faces of his band, his manager, and even his lover. There was the unmistakable sound of sirens in the distance and people could be heard scurrying about the hallways yelling earthquake!

Thanks to all my reviewers


	10. The Forgotten Playground

Downpast the playground and over to the right  
Then down the alley just out of sight  
Where memories flash like a firefly's glow

Downpast the playground and over to the right  
Then down the alley just out of sight  
We slip past the darkness under the cover of night

Steal through silence under the street lights glow  
They see us and saynothingbecause because they all know

We are headed for the place where the broken dreams go.

* * *

Forgotten Playground

Shuichi was astounded as he looked around at the studio. Just seconds ago it there was nothing wrong, but now everything had been tossed about as if… as if…

"S-Shuichi, are you ok?" stammered Hiro.

"I'm fine, but you guys look like shit. What the hell happened."

Before the earthquake hit you started to glow, then a white light blocked everything out, but we heard you scream, at least I think that was you." Hiro said with awe.

"What? What are you talking about? " Shuichi turned to Yuki in hopes of getting a straight answer "Yuki what's going on?" but Yuki was staring at Shuichi like he didn't recognize him. "Yuki! Say something!"

………….

The total extent of just what had transpired wasn't realized until the news reports started coming in from around the globe.

Everybody had gathered around the TV in the green room to see what happened. Shuichi stared blankly at the news reporter delivering the news with that false sincerity news reporters have about them, "Satellite pictures show that a seismic event originated from Tokyo, Japan and radiated around the entire Earth. The shockwave sent all of the planet's fault lines into motion at once. The results were felt around the entire globe, even opening up new fault lines there were none previously.

Most areas of the planet experienced only mild earthquakes of about 2.4, but in the US quakes hit California coastline causing devastation from San Diego and all the way up the coast to San Francisco. Experts report that the fault lines in California were due for a large quake. With the huge amounts of energy already building in the fault lines, this global event triggered earthquakes of magnitude 6.4 and as high as 7.8 throughout the California coast.

Amazingly Tokyo being at the center of the activity received only minimal damage; suffering only milder quakes in the 4.5 to 6.0 ranges and thanks to the city's strict building codes.

Scientists are at a total loss as to what could have caused such a cataclysmic event."

Shuichi felt his stomach twist into knots as the news reports came in, many of them showing bodies being pulled from the devastation and frightened survivors. People had died, others were suffering, and Shuichi had a sinking feeling that he had something to do with what happened. That somehow he had caused all of this. He shivered at the thought, but that was impossible, wasn't it? It was just a coincidence that the quake hit at the same time as that weird light.

All of this thinking was making Shuichi's head spin. He remembered the blinding white light. He tried to figure out what happened, but it was no use. That light was like nothing he had experienced before. It was more like something that took years to build deep in his darkest places just waiting to be released. The darkness was gone now and there wasn't much else to remember. Accept for the fact that he felt pain with that light, but it wasn't his pain. Could he have felt the pain of the darkness itself?

Meanwhile somewhere next to nowhere in anempty place the something in the darkness gave out a tiny cry of frustration and despair. Wrapped in the deafening silence one soul searched for a way out of the darkness. One tiny soul lost in a world of nothingness all round it. Whether it raged or cried or screamed or pleaded nothing changed. For one shining moment it had heard the singing. With all it's might it had reached for the bright fleeting hope in that song, but in a flash it was gone and the silence came crashing back again.

Siafu was pacing about a in a dark cave, mulling over nearly failed plans and unclear motives. He was unsure. If only for a moment, he had forgotten why he started all of this. What was he after all along? Was it revenge against a world that refused to take care of itself? Against humans who continue to feed off of the suffering? His eye twitched as he faced himself with the possibility that this was all some attempt to get his father's attention. His mind bushed over his father's last words to him, "Give up those dirt people and come home. The company needs you."

Then Siafu remembered that day. The day the screams woke him up in time to find bloody rivers of death shining in the light of a glorious sunrise. A sunrise as red as the blood that flowed from the people he had worked so hard to save, his people. Each one stolen away from slavery in the diamond mines, at the risk of his own life. He had promised all of them safety, he had promised a new life for them and their children. On that day all those promises were all broken. On that day the sun did not falter as it shown down on the scene and the birds did not fail to sing. They sang and went on even though Siafu's whole world had been torn asunder. Nobody cared. Nobody mourned the bodies in the dust accept for him. And rich women walked into fancy shops to buy diamonds, never knowing the pain and sorrow they were financing.

Siafu's resolve solidified and his motives had come full circle again. People will continue to feed the machine until it was stopped completely. Yes he would fix this world for better or worse and make it pure without pain and starving children, no matter what it took, no matter how bloody his hands had to be.

Anthony had been watching his friend pace in the cave. He licked his lips nervously as he watched Siafu's face twist from one emotion to the next. Anthony liked power and Siafu exuded it in spades. His admiration was enough to endure Siafu's rants and tantrums. Still, he made sure was out of Siafu's striking range before starting to speak, "It seems like such a simple request. After all if we expect this thing to follow our orders why don't we try to be nice to it. It seems only right."

Siafu did not appreciate the interruption. He glared at Anthony causing the man to shrink back a step or two "Anthony, it is a tool it does not need a name. A name would be just a hindrance for such a monster. With a name might come a heart and a tool of destruction has no need of such things." Siafu made his way to a pit in the corner of the cave, "Even if I wanted to entertain your ridiculous idea we are not the ones with the power give that thing a name."

"I see, so does that mean there is somebody out there who can?"

"I don't know." Siafu shot in an annoyed tone, "but I have a sinking feeling it's our pink haired friend, which is why I think it's high time we get him out of the way completely."

"I understand boss.", Anthony said as he slipped out of the cave.

Siafu bent down over the enormous pit giving off a sickening red glow, his face shining in the dim light and crooned, "The thought of the living burns you, doesn't it? Give it up. He wants nothing to do with a monster like you. To him you are the ID and nothing more. He will destroy you as soon as you give him the chance."

…………

When the next day came Shuichi wasn't doing any better. Guilt and uncertainty plagued him, but he still held on to the fact that it seemed pretty impossible for him to have that much power.

He might have been able to cope with the rest of what the day had planned, if he hadn't turned on the news. Sure enough there was another news reporter down on the bad side of town. She was giving a report on a part of an old pier that collapsed due to the earthquake. In that collapse a man had died, a homeless man. Shuichi felt his throat go dry as the dull ache of fear filled his lungs. There had to be thousands of homeless people in that area. It could be anybody down there what are the chances of it being the very same man he met a few days ago. He watched as the camera focused on the body bag. The news reporter was still spewing useless facts Shuichi wasn't even able to understand what she was saying anymore. He began to feel very sick as he recognized something next to the body. "Oh god please no", he muttered aloud as his morning came crashing to a complete halt. Shuichi gazed in silent horror upon a familiar battered fishing pole lying next to the body bag.

Yuki was sitting at the kitchen table and had heard Shuichi muttering at the TV. He went over to see what would cause a person to talk to an inanimate object. Yuki looked down at Shuichi saw that Shuichi looked like he was about to be sick.

"Hey if your going to blow chunks, you better go to the bathroom. I am not cleaning up your mess!"

Shuichi looked up at his lover. Yuki recoiled at the lost look on Shuichi's face. It was the look of a man who just wanted to give up completely. "What's wrong now?" he spat a bit too harshly

Shuichi looked down at the floor, unable to explain what was going on. For the first time in his life Shuichi Shindou was at a loss for words.

Yuki felt something too this time. It was a wave of anguish so thick it was tangible. If felt like Shuichi was being washed away from him. He did the only thing he could think of, he grabbed up his lover and held him. Shuichi just cried.

"Baka please stop crying you know I hate when you cry." Yuki breathed.

"I can't help it," Shuichi sobbed, "I think it's all my fault Yuki. I just know it."

Yuki knew what Shuichi was talking about, because the thought had crossed his mind as well, but Shuichi didn't need to know that, "Did it ever occur to you that the it was the earthquakes effect on you, you felt and not the other way around? Besides Joe said that nobody has that kind of power. According to Joe you wouldn't even be here right now if that was you. You would have d.." Yuki found he could not finish the sentence. He sort of choked on the last word.

Shuichi was not convinced. His head was spinning out of control and he felt trapped. Maybe if he went outside he could clear his head. Maybe then he could catch his breath, just maybe.

Yuki quickly changed the subject, "Speaking of maniacs Joe called. He says he wants to talk to you."

"Tell him I left for Denmark and I won't be home for a year."

"Why Denmark?"

"Yuuukiii, just make something up. I don't want to see them today.", Now Shuichi really had to get out of the apartment for a wile, "Yuki, I'm fine now really."

"Are you sure, because if I have to change another shirt you're going to have to do the laundry."

"Yea, thanks Yuki." Shuichi exhaled as Yuki reluctantly let go of him and wandered back into his office. Shuichi watched his lover go; only when he was sure Yuki wasn't coming back out did he scribble a quick note and sneak out the door.

Shuichi headed to his favorite place, the park. But this time he was headed for a part of the park he only went to when he really felt lost. He was headed to the forgotten place. Past a stand of over grown weeds and shadows to a corner of the park far away from the joggers' track and the traffic's din. A secret place, where the rusted swings sway and squeak in the gentle winds as if they are moved by the memories of the children who once played there. Where the tiny bits of paint chip away day by day raining down brightly colored flakes against the dark ground. This is the playground nobody plays in anymore. Where the weeds have grown high to conceal the decaying equipment, but the memories here still flash like lightning bugs on a summer night.

Shuichi seemed to be the only one who knew this place was here. It was here he would come to forget about the rest of the world, and he would imagine all of the children who once played here. The tender friendships that sometimes lasted mere hours while others lifetimes. The children are gone now, one by one each child was swallowed up by the world to be turned into adults, but the park is still here. A link that puts them all together whether they know it or not.

Shuichi sat on the rusted swings to think for him this wasn't a sad place, for now he too was a one of the parks children. Here he imagines where all of the other children are now and how a part of their hearts is still here whispering childish wishes into the wind, under the trees. And when he closes his eyes he imagines he hears those wishes floating on the breeze along with the laughter. All the dreams are still here playing under these trees on these swings.

Sometimes Shuichi toyed with the idea of donating money to have this part of the park cleaned up. It would be so easy for him and to do so, but part of him loved ghosts these old swings held. He just didn't have the heart to have it all torn up.

Shuichi just sat there on that rusted swing and let his mind wander over the lives of people he did not know. The ran over the conversation with the old fishing bum, who was now dead. He man had seemed so happy to be able to play life by his own rules. Still, it was hard to believe that he died like that. What a stupid way to die! Homeless and alone like that. Shuichi wondered how long it took somebody to find the body. How long he laid there in the dirt with his pole lying on the ground beside him. Did he miss the sunset that day?

Shuichi was there for a long time before the weeds started rustling. Somebody was coming. He ducked off of his swing into one of the over grown bushes as a couple emerged into the clearing of the playground. They were a middle-aged couple. The lady led the way dragging the man by the hand.

"Wow it's still here!" the lady said in awe.

"Great now can we go before we get gangrene? Ick. I need a tetanus shot just looking at this place." The man groused. Shuichi couldn't help but snicker at the fact he sounded like Yuki.

"Oh come on! Herb. It's just like it was when we were kids! It's amazing that everything is still here." She said as she made her way over to the decrepit slide.

"Yes, it's amazing it's still standing. What a pile of scrap."

The lady looked under the slide. Shuichi saw her expression change to excitement, "Herb! Come here! Look it's still here, I don't believe it."

"What is it?" Herb was under the slide looking as well.

"Don't you remember? It's the promise you wrote to me when you first met me?"

"Oh yea, hey look at that. Defacing public property, I was a real charmer wasn't I? You were moving away and I promised to find you again. See, I can keep a promise when I need to!"

"I'm glad you kept that one."

Herb hugged the lady, "So am I Doris, so am I."

Shuichi decided it was time to get out of there. He fought through to the other side of the bush away from the playground and Doris and Herb. He was so happy to see that he was right about the park and it's ghosts. Never in his wildest dreams would he have imagined actually seeing the park's magic in action. He made his way out of the bushes and looked back to marvel at how they covered the playground completely enveloping the swings and their secrets perfectly.

He went to check the time on his cell phone and crap. There were about sixteen calls from his sister. He called her back.

"Shuichi? Thank god you called!"

"What's wrong Maiko?"

His sister blurted out quickly, "Shuichi, grandpa is coming your way!"

"What! How did he find out where I live?"

"He came here and had a big fight with Mom. She wasn't going to give him your address, but you know how he can be. He was going on about family destiny and your duties."

"Shit! When will he get here?"

Maiko started to hedge, "I've been trying to contact you for a wile, you know."

"Just tell me when is he coming!"

"He should be there right about now."

"Shit!" Shuichi hung up the phone and raced back to the apartment.

* * *

I have been working on the entire story not just this chapter, which is why it's taking me forever to update. I owe all of you readers. Thanks! 


	11. Grandpa Shinou

Of Daggers and Destiny

Shuichi managed to get home in record time. Slamming the door behind him he started to look for heavy furniture. His brilliant plan consisted of building a barricade, but they barely had any furniture! Damn minimalist décor! Yuki came out of his office with an offended look in his face, "Where the hell did you go?"

"Out." Shuichi managed as he gulped for air, "Listen Yuki, there's something I haven't mentioned before that I probably should have." Shuichi was interrupted by a knock at the door. Shuichi looked at the door with horror.

"Hey Shuichi, It's Joe we need to talk about what happened the other day."

Shuichi gave Yuki look number 487 (The I am about to cry look) and his plea was understood, "I'll handle this." Yuki muttered to Shuichi.

Joe knocked again, "Shuichi! I know you're in there. Don't you think Yuki would be mad if we broke the door?"

Yuki cleared his throat, "We are busy shagging like bunnies. Go away." Shuichi started to protest, but Yuki grabbed him.

There was a moment of silence from the door, "No your not."

"I'll be more than happy to prove it to you."

This time there were muffled thumps coming from the other side of the door as Joe stopped Todd from heading for the hills. Joe cleared his throat, "We have beer."

Yuki took one look at the fridge that he knew was currently lacking in alcoholic goodness.

-Seconds later-

"Yuukiiii! Why the hell did you just let them in you bastard!"

"Beer." Yuki replied simply holding up the can as if to toast.

Yuki looked around expecting more people, "Where are the other two clowns?"

"Jenna is at the base trying to score a flight home to see if her parents are ok. They live in San Francisco and she hasn't been able to contact them since the earthquake. Koutarou went with her. He's just tryin' to get in her pants."

"If she's psychic why doesn't she just use her voodoo to see if they are still alive?"

Joe furrowed his brow, "She can only find people who have powers. Besides she's a little weird lately I don't like to ask her too many questions if I can help it. I never get any straight answers." Joe looked around for Shuichi, "Right now we need to see if your lover boy knows anything about what just happened to the planet."

Shuichi was skulking on the couch trying to find something to watch on TV that wasn't news. He didn't really want to talk and didn't look at them as he grumbled, "Don't know. What do you guys think happened?"

Todd sat down at the kitchen table and opened his laptop, "None of my monitors were able to pick up what happened. Normally our powers consist of controlling electrical and molecular energy. Everything I have is geared to picking up that energy, but according to the scanners that night, nothing actually happened."

That got Shuichi's attention, "Huh?"

"In theory nothing actually touches anything else we have the sensation of feeling because of the way molecules repel each other. Those of us with powers have an interesting ability to move things by exploiting the energy in an item's molecules. That's basically why we can blast stuff and heat things up. It's all about exciting the molecules with our own energy. But that's not what happened last night."

Shuichi gave Todd a confused look before blurting out, "You don't go on very many dates do you?"

Todd shot him a scowl, "At least I'm not a fag."

Joe groaned in irritation, "Will you two fuckin idiots cut it out! We don't have time for this shit!"

Todd turned back to his laptop, "Nothing from that day showed up on any visible radar, but something did show up on the temperature readings of the area. We were able to keep this out of the media, here." Todd pointed to the map of Tokyo that was alive with swirling colors depicting different air temperatures. "What you are seeing here is a huge cold spot right over NG Studios. Cold would normally show up as blue but this mass is so cold it's showing up as black. This cold spot lasted for about an hour before this happened." They watched as a blinding red spot swallowed up the black one and radiated out in lighting patterns in all directions, running along the ground like the cracks in broken ice.

Shuichi's anguish returned. He didn't notice he had started to breathe heavily. With dread in his heart he told Joe and Todd about the darkness and the light from that day. Todd typed down the data and Joe watched Shuichi intently saying nothing. Shuichi just had to know the truth; even though the truth was probably the last thing he wanted to hear.

As Shuichi explained the events of that day, he had forgotten the reason why he had rushed home in such a hurry. Yuki opened the door expecting to see the usual delivery guy; instead he saw an ancient looking little man. Yuki looked down at the man, "I didn't know Oshio's was hiring seniors." The man fixed Yuki with a lavender colored eye.

'That's weird' thought Yuki, 'The same color as Shuichi's.' He had never seen anybody with Shuichi's color eyes before. Maybe this was a relative of Shu's, but curiosity quickly gave out to hunger, "How much?"

The man looked at Yuki with a mixture of confusion and agitation, "For what?"

"Is Alzheimer's setting in? The food. Aren't you the delivery guy?"

The old man's face twisted into a sneer, "Me, a common delivery boy?"

Shuichi heard that familiar disgruntled voice and his face dropped. How could he have forgotten something so important! He shot up from his seat and rushed toward Yuki. With a forced smile he shouted, "Grandpa! What a surprise to see you."

Yuki didn't think he heard Shuichi right, "Grandpa? This man is your, Grandfather? You should have told me your grandfather worked at Oshio's you could have gotten us a discount."

"Yuki, my grandpa is a martial arts master, he does not deliver food." Shuichi said quietly through gritted teeth.

The old man gave Yuki a death glare that rivaled his own as he entered the apartment. The old man moved with grace that belied his age. Yuki didn't like the pained look on Shuichi's face and why hadn't the brat mentioned his grandfather in all the years they have been together.

Yuki watched as grandson and grandfather regarded each other carefully for a moment.

Shuichi rushed over to the man stumbling over himself, "It's good to see you. Why did you come all the way here from the dojo?" He asked nervously, as the old man stepped forward to meet him, in and instant with one move so fast Yuki had trouble seeing it, Grandpa Shindou punched Shuichi right in the gut and threw him down onto the floor. "OW, grandpa" he choked "it's nice to see you too."

With an angry growl Grandpa Shindou spat, "Shuichi, you really are why some animals eat their young."

Shuichi painfully stood up and wheezed, "Everybody, this is My Grandpa Tadashi Shindou. Grandpa these are my friends Joe, Todd, and this man here." he said moving to stand beside Yuki, "Is my."

"I know who that one is." Grandpa interrupted in a gruff manner causing Shuichi to wince.

"Grandpa runs a Dojo in the mountains. We hardly ever see him, although he has tried to get me to train with him since I was born." Shuichi said with a bit of sneer in his voice.

Yuki got the idea that good ol' gramps here didn't appreciate Shuichi's lifestyle choices. This must by why the brat never mentioned his grandfather before.

The old man sized Yuki up. Yuki looked down at the man who wasn't much taller than Shuichi. "So my grandson has shacked up with a useless monk?" he grumbled

"Grandpa!"

"Don't grandpa me! Damn monks are nothing but trouble. It was the monks who had our ancestors sentenced to death. Then they sat and prayed wile our family was slaughtered. What good did it do to have them killed Eh?" He said wile glaring at Yuki.

Yuki narrowed his eyes, "Let me get this straight. You have no problem with us being gay, but you have issues because you think I'm a monk?"

"Grandfather, Yuki isn't a monk. He left the temple to his younger brother." Shuichi said quickly hoping it would help.

The old man looked at Yuki again. He knew that it was Yuki's duty as the eldest son to take over the temple. He nodded as he mulled over the implications the blonde's decision. "I bet your father loved that idea." He said with a sly grin.

"Oh yea, he was jumping for joy." Yuki snapped sarcastically

"You're still a useless monk! Shuichi should have nothing to do with you! He has brought shame to the Shindou family by associating with a descendant of our family's murders!"

Shuichi stepped between Yuki and Grandpa Shindou in an attempt to head off the building argument. The old man halted his attack to stare at his grandson in disbelief. This was the first time Shuichi had ever stood up to him, but Grandpa Shindou continued his attack.

"You are a disgrace to the family line! If your mother had let me train you the world might have had a fighting chance, but no she said I was crazy! She said I would kill you. She was so worried I would hurt her delicate flower of a son!" Grandpa Shindou was furious, "The first time the Shindou family has been called into action and we have a useless twerp like you stepping up to the task! Killing you might be an improvement!"

Joe and Todd had been watching the whole scene in astonishment. Joe couldn't help but interrupt the action, "Shuichi does everybody in your life abuse you like this? Between your lover, your boss, your manager, and this guy it's a wonder why you haven't snapped."

Grandpa Shindou shot Joe an infuriated stare.

Yuki didn't care if the man was Shuichi's grandfather he was even worse than his own father. The man barely took breaths between the insults he was slinging.

Shuichi let out a defeated sigh, "Grandpa did you come here just to yell at me more, because if you did…."

"No, I have a purpose here today." He said stiffly. He was trying to stifle his normal reactions in an attempt to have an actual conversation with his grandson. "It has come to my attention that you have figured it out."

"It? You mean my powers? Grandpa I discovered my powers way back in chapter one of this story why are you here now?"

"Not those powers. Those tricks are something some of the Shindou family members were able to do for centuries. Not all of us have them, about one in about one hunderd of the Shindou family line display those powers. Back when the monks had murdered most of the Shindou family only one ancestor escaped by stowing away on a trader's ship. He sailed the world and made a reputation for himself by using his powers to cheat at gambling and woo ladies. All of you who display those powers will be related to that one ancestor."

"So our ancestor was a sex crazed gambling scoundrel, and I am related to these guys?" Shuichi asked pointing a finger at Joe and Todd.

"Yes."

"Oh boy does that explain a lot!" Grumbled Yuki.

Todd and Joe looked at each other and both let out a groan. They had never thought to check on everybody's family history. "Crap, that means I'm related to Jenna." Todd bemoaned, "Hey somebody better call up Koutarou before he tries to make a move on her."

Shuichi was still confused, "So you came here to talk to all of us."

"Moron! If you don't start thinking for yourself how are you going to save the rest of us! Did you ever wonder why your eyes are violet? Out of every generation of the Shindou family only one is born with that eye color!"

"I though it was unique, but I never thought"

"You, think? The one born with this eye color bears a special burden" The old man tried to remain calm as he explained but his voice grew louder with every word, "It was my responsibility until you were born, now it's yours and you know nothing about it! It's the power you just used to take down half the known world."

Shuichi's jaw dropped. "That was my power" he whispered, "I did that. No, no, no. That couldn't have been me. That would mean I k-." Shuichi's mouth stopped working. He was responsible for people dying. Shuichi was paralyzed with shock and guilt. A solid wall of emotion hit him smothering him under its weight.

Grandpa Shindou seemed to glow red with anger. He grabbed Shuichi by the shirt and slapped him hard. "Snap out of it you little shit! You're the only one with that power now and everything you love is about to be destroyed!"

Shuichi looked at his grandfather as if he had just noticed the man. Shuichi's face twisted in anger as he growled, "Let me go."

"See!" the old man howled, "There. There it is. There's the real monster! It's inside you! You used your power in anger and you see what happened. If you don't learn to keep your emotions in check, you will be the one who destroys the planet!"

Joe couldn't watch this anymore "Hey! Lay off him! If that were me I would have blasted you into next week."

Tadashi Shindou gave Joe a cold hard stare, "You can't see it, but I can. It's right there. The anger will build in him until he can't control it anymore!"

Shuichi looked at the old man for a few seconds before he closed his eyes in defeat. His grandfather gently let go of his shirt.

"Through the generations our family has been standing ready to heed a call. Nobody has ever been called upon before, so nobody knows what it is we are supposed to do. What I do know is that what happening now is something that has never happened before, but the groundwork for this day was laid long before the sun first burned to life."

"Oh yea," Joe whispered to Todd, "He's definitely related to Jenna."

Gramps cleared his throat and continued, "I have something for you." He handed Shuichi a dagger. The hilt was shaped like a dragon and the blade came out of its mouth in a short sharp curve.

Yuki cringed inwardly He could see Shuichi cutting himself already. He made a mental note to stock up on more bandages.

"Nobody knows when this blade was made. It's rumored to be a tool for killing monsters. It has been in the family since before records were kept. It's yours now."

"What am I supposed to do with this?"

"I don't know! Use it to open letters for all I care. You are such a useless brat. He made a move to punch Shuichi again, but this time Shuichi caught his fist in mid strike. Shuichi was surprised he had stopped the attack. That surprise was also reflected in the face of the old man as well as a faint grin.

"The mountain where my dojo sits has begun to die. There have been strange things going on there. The smell of death infects the night air and the crickets have all stopped singing. I think it is time Shuichi that you come to the dojo. I will be expecting you one week from today." And with that the crazy old man left the apartment.

Joe and Todd were not far behind as they hurried after Grandpa Shinou in an attempt to get more information out of him. Shuichi was just happy to see them all go.

"And I thought my family was a troop of baboons." Yuki said trying to get a bead on how Shuichi was feeling.

Shuichi chuckled, "Yea, old gramps always did have a tendency to be a real asshole."

"So what happens now? Your not actually going to go up to the mountains with him, are you?"

Shuichi didn't answer the question,"I'm starving what happened to our food?"

"Don't know. Maybe your grandfather ate the delivery boy on his way over."

* * *

In the next chapter plans have been set in motion and people are gonna' get hurt.

Thanks loyal readers for sticking with this story. I hope you like it.


	12. The Attack

The Attack

Men should not be allowed to own refrigerators unless somebody with a uterus is present to check up on it. Yuki stared, perplexed at the red angry looking sticker covering his fridge, "Shuichi! Where the hell did this HAZMAT (1) sticker come from?"

"That was Joe. He took a look in there the other day and ran out of the apartment. He says he's going to bring in a swat team to conquer the Mongolian food we have stored in the back, before it takes over the world." Shuichi shouted from the bedroom wile rummaging through the laundry on the floor for a cleanish shirt.

"What? I don't remember ordering any Mongolian food recently."

"Well, it wasn't exactly what you call recent. It's more like last year when we were celebrating our anniversary when we decided to stay home and shag like bunnies instead." Shuichi sniffed the shirt he dug out form under the bed and instantly turned green.

Yuki looked in the fridge. Ok, so there was a layer of permacrud formed by the years of stored takeout containers, but that was no reason to call in a swat team. Then he noticed it. A tiny flash of movement in the back there by the old green slice of pizza. Yuki shut quickly the door and cleared his throat nervously, "So, did you say Joe was coming?"

It was later that day that Yuki found himself fumbling around his empty apartment searching for coffee and reasons for Shuichi's absence. Shuichi was out for yet another walk. He said he needed to clear his thoughts. Apparently he had some very cloudy thoughts. Yuki didn't like the fact Shuichi wouldn't answer him when he asked about going to his grandfather's dojo. Why would Shuichi subject himself to that evil old bastard? It didn't make any sense. Then again Shuichi was a glutton for punishment when it came to dealing with evil tempered people.

Shuichi was being distant and Yuki was worried about his lover. Yuki had noticed

Shu had been avoiding going back to work. He stopped listening to his music in fact Shuichi had stopped singing all together. Something had caused him to completely give up singing and take up roaming aimlessly around the city, but what?

Just to add fuel to the fire Tohma had also renewed his efforts to get on Yuki's case about Shuichi. Yuki knew Tohma was worried about him, but why did he have to be such a pain in the ass about it? He really didn't want or need Tohma's brand of coddling. He just wanted his life back to normal. He just wanted Shuichi back to normal, well as close to normal as Shuichi could ever be.

Yuki opened the door to get the newspaper, still lost in his world of self pity, and didn't notice the shadow lurking in the hallway. That was, until the shadow sprang to life. The next thing Yuki knew was searing pain across his chest and he found himself on his back at a stranger's feet. His chest clenched. It felt like he was having a heart attack, as the man bent down to his ear and spoke, "I can't kill you yet because we don't need a martyr on our hands. So I give you a warning for your little faggot friend. He leaves us alone you both get to live, understand?"

"Fuck you! You better not touch him." Yuki wheezed under the crushing weight on his chest.

"Listen", Anthony drawled in his thick Italian accent, "He is not safe and neither are you so he needs to quit while you still have a head. It will not be good for you if he tries to stop us. I assure you we will kill him but don't worry; I will make a special trip to kill you too, my treat." He added with a smile

"Bastard!" Yuki breathed as he tried to get up.

Anthony kneeled down to grab a fistful of Yuki's hair forcing Yuki to look him in the eyes, "Hey, what are you complaining about I'm doin' you a favor. Usually my services don't come cheap ya know."

There was a flash of light and Anthony vanished from Yuki's line of vision.

Yuki could hear the Anthony sputtering, "Shit! You bastards should know better than to sneak up on an old man."

Yuki heard Joe's whiny voice, "Will you fuckin shut up and die already." Joe fired a blast that knocked Anthony off of his feet and sent him sliding across the hallway.

Suddenly the pressure in Yuki's chest just left it just let go. Yuki made an attempt to stand up, but found he was in worse shape than he thought. He looked down at the large gash running up his chest from where Anthony had cut him. It was ugly deep and shit that's going to leave a scar. Blood was staining the mangled remains of this shirt. He leaned back against the hallway wall. As the thin line of consciousness began to blur he heard Todd and Joe arguing.

"Fuck! They were waiting for us to let our guard down. Shuichi's gonna kill us for letting this happen." Todd moaned

"Where the hell is Shuichi anyway?" Joe tried to ask Yuki, Yuki couldn't answer he was still struggling just to stay conscious.

Todd moved Yuki so he was lying flat on the floor, "Never mind Shuichi can you stop the bleeding?"

"Yea, he's not too bad. This must have just been a warning. Todd call an ambulance."

Todd fumbled with his cell phone, "Why the hell does that guy still use that knife when he can just kill them outright?"

"Todd. Like I said this was a warning. They can't kill him! If they did there would be nothing to stop Shuichi from coming after them."

Meanwhile---

Shuichi was roaming around the city watching people and trying to forget about singing when his cell phone rang. He got a bad feeling but answered it anyway. "Hello"

He was answered with nothing but static, must be a bad connection. But just before hung up the line, he heard whispering in that static. The voice crackled up discordantly through the squelching static. "The screams… I did it … They bleed for me… They all will bleed for me…. The old god has finally died… now I am god… spare not a one….. Vengeance…not be denied… All will fall…nothingness…." The words chilled Shuichi to the bone. They were the rambling thoughts of a mad man.

"Siafu you psycho! What the fuck do you want now?"

The voice stopped there was nothing but static, eerie static. Then more words rose up through the static again, "… Shuichi… you've been keeping all the balls in the air for so long,…. One just dropped little hero… What will you do?"

Shuichi hung up. He couldn't listen anymore. What the fuck did that mean? This man made no sense at all. The phone rang again playing taps, the ring was reserved for only one caller, Tohma. Now Shuichi almost wished Siafu would call back.

* * *

(1)HASMAT: Hazardous Materials Safety Administration

Uh.. the next chapter is almost done so I will update real soon. ( next week or so ) Shuichi has to face Tohma again, but will Tohma survive the next round against a Shuichi who's pretty much had all he can take?


	13. Seething

Seething

All Shuichi could make out from his brief conversation with Tohma were the words Yuki and hospital. By the time Shuichi had actually made it to the hospital he was in a terrible state of panic. It was only after racing around the hospital like a complete idiot for a good fifteen minutes that he was able to gather together enough common sense to ask a nurse for directions.

Shuichi stumbled into Yuki's room exhausted, "Yuki?" Yuki was sitting up in bed talking with Joe and Todd. Shuichi launched himself at his love, "Oh Yukiii you're alive! I was so worried!"

Todd and Joe had managed to grab Shuichi before he made full contact with Yuki's injured chest, well almost.

"OW brat!" Yuki moaned, "Are you blind? Get off of me!"

Shuichi finally noticed the bandages across Yuki's chest, "What happened?"

"I had a run-in with that Anthony guy. He left you a message, before Joe chased him off."

The look in Yuki's eyes made Shuichi's heart stop, "What was the message?"

"Shuichi and I need to talk." Yuki looked at the Joe and Todd, but they both just stood there not taking the hint, "Alone!"

"Oh you mean us." Joe said as he headed out of the room.

Todd didn't want to stand around in the hallway so he made up an excuse to disappear, "Joe, my laptop is out of power I'm going to go find a place to plug it in and check on a few things. I'll be back up in a bit."

"Fine, just don't get lost." Joe leaned against the wall to wait for Shuichi, when to his amusement an angry little blond man came storming up the hallway. Tohma was about to enter Yuki's room when Joe stopped him. "They want to be alone for a bit."

"What?" Tohma looked at the stranger and noticed Joe was staring at him curiously.

Then the little light bulb of recognition clicked on in Joe's mind "Hey! I remember you from the studio. You're Shuichi's boss right? How ya doin'?"

Tohma put on his best fake smile, "Fine."

"Will you do me a favor? When Shuichi comes can you tell him I went to get somethin' to eat."

"Yea, sure." Tohma said only half listening as he peeked through the tiny window on the hospital room door.

"Thanks." And with that Joe started off for the Hospital café, in the wrong direction.

Back in the hospital room, Yuki gently tilted Shuichi's chin forcing Shu to look at him. Shuichi withered at the look in Yuki's eyes, "You need to quit playing this game. You're a singer, not a hero. I have a feeling something bad is going to happen if you don't. This isn't worth getting yourself killed over. Promise me you will stop this?"

Shuichi was overcome he wanted nothing more than to take Yuki up on his offer and just forget everything else. "Yuki, I-I can't." his voice cracked.

Shuichi struggled to keep himself together but he was failing miserably, "Yuki, You don't understand. I can't just quit now."

Yuki couldn't believe his ears, "Why?"

"Yuki, I want to forget really I do, but I'm scared. I'm afraid of my powers, I'm afraid to sing, afraid of losing you, even my dreams." Shuichi trailed off.

"What dreams?"

"Every night for the past few days, I've been having the same dream. I'm lost in the dark I can't find my way out or wake myself up no matter how hard I try. I'm trapped and the really scary part is that I can feel something looking for me. I can't see it, I just feel it searching relentlessly the in the dark for me. No matter how far I run I can't get away from it. Every night it's been getting a little bit closer before I finally wake up. Yuki, I don't want to know what happens when it finally finds me. I am so scared. As much as I love you I just can't stop now."

Yuki let go of Shuichi and lay back on the bed with a huff. Defeated, sore, and tired he stared at the ceiling, "How do you know all this crap isn't just a product of your deluded mind?"

"Yuki, I'm sorry please try to understand. You have to trust me."

"Shuichi, am I still important to you?"

"W-What do you mean by that?"

"Even though your life is in danger you're telling me you can't stop because of your stupid dreams? Do you care at all about what this is doing us, to me? Why are you…" Yuki was about to say more but he ran out of coherent thoughts.

"Yuki, I'm so sorry. I know this is all my fault and I love you more than anything, but you have to trust me." He hugged Yuki. Shuichi wished he could just stop time right here and never have to let go, "I will never leave you, I promise."

Shuichi could see over Yuki's shoulder that Tohma was staring at him from the other side of the hospital room door. The plastic smile was gone from his bosses face. Replaced with a glare that would rival Yuki's. Tohma said nothing, he didn't have to. He merely gave the tiniest head tilt towards the hallway and Shuichi understood the message.

"I have to go Yuki. Tohma needs to yell at me for a bit."

"Don't try to kick is ass again." Yuki groaned as Shuichi left him.

Shuichi followed Tohma as if he were being lead to his own execution. It was one thing when a fight just blossomed out of a regular conversation. It was another thing all together to jump into the volcanic pit of Tohma wrath with your eyes open. Tohma didn't stop until they had made their way out to the hospital and into the parking garage. "Oh perfect, he's going to kill Me.", thought Shuichi as he looked around for an unmarked black sedan.

Tohma finally stopped and rounded on Shuichi, "I don't care what this game you're playing is called, but it ends here and now!"

"Tohma, you don't understand." Shuichi tired to explain himself, but it was no use.

"Why do you insist on putting him in danger?" Tohma spat cutting Shuichi off, "He could have been killed today! I will not have this anymore! You are a danger to him, I can see that clearly even if he can't!"

Shuichi didn't want to start another fight with Tohma, but he felt the anger already starting to prickle beneath his skin.

"Shuichi all you think about is yourself. Have you ever given a single thought to what Yuki needs?"

"Tohma, please let me.."

"You're selfish little bastard! All he wants is for you to be safe and to stay by his side!"

Shuichi felt the prickle spark into a flame, "Tohma."

"Shut up! I'm sick of you. You're better than Kitazawa!" Tohma roared.

With that Shuichi's anger broke free.

* * *

Oh good your still here!

This chapter got out of hand so I had to break it up a bit. I am happy to say I have mostly finished the story so chapters will be going up much quicker from now on.

Next chapter: Tohma is in deep shit.


	14. Tohma's realization

I want to give a big round of thanks to Saya my new beta.

bows to Saya the Beta queen

* * *

Confusion

Like a mad dog off its chain Shuichi's anger was out of control. When he locked eyes with Tohma, Tohma was startled to see the rage burning there. He took a step back, but he was still too angry to realize the true danger of his situation. "What are you going to do Shuichi? Hurt me, maybe even kill me?" he spat.

Shuichi said nothing; he was done trying to reason with Tohma. Tohma noticed the tiniest a flick of Shuichi's eyebrow and in an instant he was on the ground with a crushing pain in his chest. Tohma looked up at Shuichi. "Do you think this will change anything? Go a head kill me see what happens next."

Shuichi didn't talk he just increased the power. Tohma grunted and struggled under the pressure in his chest. He tried to stand up, but the pain was excruciating. "So you really are going to kill me eh? No longer afraid to get a little blood on your hands, then so be it!"

Shuichi could feel it he was almost there; just one more push and this would be all over. His thoughts blurred as he watched Tohma. The swirling feelings of anger and hate surrounding his heart seemed to shriek with glee. This was it, just one more push.

"I'm not afraid to die for him." Tohma gasped as he fell to the floor on his back. Unable to speak anymore he stared into Shuichi's eyes.

The pain in Tohma's chest lifted instantly. Seeing Tohma in lying there helpless and hearing those words, knocked Shuichi out of his killing rage. All he could see now were the visions of Hiro struggling the same way under Anthony's power.

Tohma just stayed there for a moment lying on the floor, his eyes were wide as he struggled for breath. "Come on Shuichi he gasped, why did you stop?" It's what you want isn't it? Me out of the way for good?"

Inside Shuichi was terrified at what he was just about to do. He was about to kill his boss in cold blood. As much as he hated the man, he never thought is anger would take him this far. "Leave me alone Tohma." his voice cracked.

Tohma stood up shakily still trying to catch his breath. "No way", he wheezed, "not as long as Erie is in danger. You're just going to have to kill me."

Shuichi didn't answer. He couldn't answer. He wanted to say he was sorry, but he couldn't get the words to come out of his mouth. Shuichi failed to protect Yuki from getting hurt, while Tohma was ready to die for him. This was wrong. How many others were going to be hurt because of him?

Shuichi's moral dilemma was cut short when he heard that voice again. "Come on Shuichi. You heard the man. He wants to die. Are you that much of a coward?"

A wave of icy cold hit Shuichi like a brick wall. He felt his mind go numb from the cold surrounding him, as icy fingers snaked into his veins. He turned from Tohma as Siafu stepped out from behind one of the concrete supports.

"Siafu, What the fuck do you want now?" Shuichi so didn't need this right now.

"Oh what will your precious Yuki think of you when he finds out you almost killed his best friend?" Siafu said stroking his chin and smiling.

Shuichi was speechless. What would Yuki think of him? Another few seconds and Tohma really would have been dead. But it was an accident, he was just angry that's all. He didn't mean it!

"Now this is rich, Shuichi Shindou isn't actually a hero after all he's just another bloody killer like the rest of us, but you are the worst kind. You have no problem taking out people you don't know but you can actually do it for yourself. You chicken out.

You're both a would-be hero who's a killer, and a killer with no real nerve. You really are ridiculous." Siafu was relishing Shuichi's moment of confusion.

"What are you talking about?"

"I know you felt it just now, your rage. It was thrilling wasn't it? To feel his heart struggle to beat in your grasp like that, I know you liked it, I saw it in your eyes. Why can't you just finish the job?"

"Shut up!" Shuichi howled, "I didn't want to kill Tohma! He-he just pissed me off that's all."

"I don't mind you being a coward so much as leaving the job undone, but don't worry I'll do it for you." Siafu threw a blast at Tohma, but Shuichi stepped in front of Tohma and blocked it. The force of it knocked Shuichi backwards into a startled Tohma.

"Leave him alone!" Shuichi yelled.

Shuichi countered with a blast of his own but Siafu dodged. Did Siafu get a lot faster, or was the frost laid about his heart and soul slowing Shuichi down? Shuichi felt like he was drowning in that cold hopeless feeling.

"Shuichi, I'm doing you a favor. With Tohma out of the way you can spend your days quietly with your lover. No more problems from his jealous advances."

Shuichi stood in front of Tohma blocking Siafu. Tohma was so confused, "Shuichi why are you?.."

Shuichi spoke quietly hoping only Tohma could hear him, "If you run he will kill you, if distract me he will kill you, so if you want to live just stay put and shut up. I need keep my focus or we're both gonna' be dead meat."

Siafu heard anyway, "Shuichi are you mad? That man there hates you. He wouldn't hesitate to destroy you if given the chance."

"I don't need to explain myself to you!" Shuichi let out another blast Siafu dodged again. Shit. If he could just shake this freaky icy feeling Shuichi was sure he could get him easily.

"The ID is alone because its power causes nothing but death, just like yours did as well, but you don't seem to be fazed in the least by that." Siafu taunted.

"You're just trying to get under my skin! Shut up." Shuichi let out five blasts in rapid succession, but Siafu was ready and let out another blast knocking Shuichi off his feet giving him access to Tohma. He let out a second blast but Shuichi knocked it out of the air with his own power.

Shuichi tried to hit Siafu again, but it was like he was fighting a ghost. He lobbed blast after blast, but nothing was getting near him.

"It exists in nothingness, and it thirsts for you. When you connected with it that day I felt its yearning. Is it just your singing or is it something else that draws it to you? Maybe that's why you haven't sung since the incident?"

Shuichi gave Siafu a frightened look. How the hell did he know?

"Yes, Shuichi Shindou I know all about that, not a single note since that day. Why Shuichi?"

Tohma's eyes grew wide as he realized why Shuichi had been skipping out on work the past few days.

Shuichi blasted Siafu dead on. At least he thought it was dead on. Siafu disappeared, but Shuichi and Tohma heard his voice from somewhere. "I warned you Shuichi! I told you not to interfere!" his voice shrieked in rage. Then there was nothing.

"Fuck!" Shuichi growled, "How the hell does he do that!" Shuichi was angry He wanted to kill something. He wanted to end this. He wanted to sing again! He let out a strangled yell of frustration. He felt place where the white light came from swell almost to bursting. Shuichi panicked as he felt it taking control. No no no! please not again he yelled dropping to his knees both of his hands buried in his pink hair as if to squeeze down the power wanting to burst from within.

Tohma watched stunned as Shuichi flipped out, not sure of what to do next. Tohma didn't understand what just happened, but he decided at that moment that it was time to lay off Shuichi, just a bit. Yes, for the first time since he had met Shuichi Tohma felt sympathy for the singer.

It took a few more seconds before Shuichi recovered enough to speak. "I am so sorry Tohma." Shuichi muttered quietly as Tohma helped him get to his feet. Shuichi felt the ice melting from his veins.

"It's ok now. So that's what you're up against?" asked Tohma.

Shuichi nodded.

"What is this Id he was talking about?"

"I don't really know. It's supposed be some kind of monster, but nothing makes any sense anymore." Shuichi groaned, "I can't control my powers, my friends are all in danger, I'm not sure how much more of this I can take."

"So that's why you stopped singing Shuichi?"

Shuichi never answered Tohma's question, "Tohma you are right. This is getting too dangerous and I don't think I can live with the thought of Yuki being in danger because of me."

"What are you saying?" Tohma asked nervously.

"I'm saying, if something happens Yuki's going to need you again."

Tohma wasn't actually bad Shuichi knew that well enough. Deep down they were both on the same page, especially when it came to Yuki.

* * *

Next chapter Tohma may have Yuki all to himself sooner than he ever expected.

About the Id - The actual human brain itself is commonly thought of as three different sections: the id, the ego, and the superego. The id is the animalistic part of or brain. Its main function is to try and fulfill the person's wants and desires. It possesses no moral values, and no sense of time.


	15. Meltdown

Meltdown

Shuichi and Tohma parted ways. Actually Tohma was just a little bit  
afraid of Shuichi, but there was no way he would never admit that and  
Shuichi was still reeling from the shock of almost killing Tohma.  
Shuichi knew Tohma was sure to tell Yuki what just happened. He  
couldn't help but groan at the thought, but even worse was the  
realization that next time somebody crossed his line, he wouldn't be  
able to stop himself before it was too late.

What if the next person was Yuki? Hell knows they got into enough  
fights what if…. Shuichi shuttered at the thought of Yuki getting  
hurt. The feelings of guilt and fear wound together squeezing into  
tight noose around Shuichi's lungs and heart that seemed to tighten  
with each breath.

He had started to wander around the hospital even though he didn't  
have a clue as to where he was headed. The hospital was a maze of  
unfamiliar sterile passages that seemed to lead in circles. There was  
only one direction he felt he wanted to go; up, so he climbed as high  
as he could go. Roaming through the halls that became the increasingly  
deserted as he spiraled upwards through floor after floor of the  
hospital.

He stopped only when he found himself staring at a substantial looking  
gray metal door. It was locked. It seemed to challenge him even though  
he knew it was nothing more than thick metal and chipped paint.  
Without considering why he needed to see the other side of this  
particular door, Shuichi overloaded the lock with a small blast. It  
popped with a heavy clunk. When he pushed it open the door groaned and  
protested loudly on its rusty hinges, but as it did daylight and a  
rush of fresh air flooded Shuichi's senses. Shuichi had made his way  
to the roof of the hospital.

Shuichi's eyes grew wide at the view of the city skyline that spread  
out before him. The sun had already started to bleed down into the  
horizon line. As it did its light touched the tops of the buildings  
and seemed to set them ablaze with brilliant streaks of red and gold,  
that glittered in the windows of the surrounding buildings like sparks  
of fire.

But Shuichi was too far immersed in self-pity to pay attention to the  
vision for long. His stomach clenched. Maybe Tohma was right. Maybe he  
would just wind up hurting Yuki just like Kitazawa. Tears started to  
obscure his view of the sunset as it flared bravely against the  
encroaching night sky.

Now, Shuichi is not known for coming up with very good ideas. In fact  
the very words, "I have an idea." when spoken by Shuichi, usually  
cause those who know him to want to flea for their lives. Standing  
there on the rooftop, Shuichi came up with one hell of a bad idea; in  
fact this was the worst idea he had ever come up with to date.

To cease to be, was his grand plan. After all, if he was gone there  
would be no reason for Siafu hurt his friends. If he was gone he  
wouldn't be able to cause any more earthquakes. No more people would  
die because of him. If he was gone the id or whatever it was would  
stop haunting his dreams. Yes, he was willing to go that far to make  
sure his friends were safe, safe from him.

Shuichi had become lost in his thoughts that he didn't even see the  
fat black clouds swallowing up the last rays of the dying day. His  
decision made, he let his mind go blank and he slipped out of reality  
and into the burgeoning storm.

Back in the hospital, Tohma had taken his time in getting back to  
Yuki's room he wasn't ready for the sight of the two of them all over  
each other, reaffirming a love that Tohma still secretly desired.  
Tohma was surprised to find Yuki in his bed with no Shuichi in sight.  
Of course Tohma wasted no time in taking the free spot on the edge of  
Yuki's bed and asked innocently, "Where's Shuichi?"

Yuki shot Tohma his 'what the fuck?' look, "What do you mean 'where's  
Shuichi?' he went off with you and never came back."

"I haven't seen him since our talk. I though he came back here,  
but..." Tohma paused in mid sentence when he saw the fierce look on  
Yuki's face.

"What's the matter?" Tohma stammered, but that only caused Yuki to  
harden his glare.

A strong hand grabbed a handful of the front of Tohma's shirt. Yuki  
drew him near and hissed angrily, "Don't give me that. I can see you  
two were fighting again. What did you do to him this time?"

Tohma tried to wrench his shirt free from Yuki's grip when he noticed  
Yuki's other hand was balled up in an angry fist. Oh yes, yet another  
attempt to kill him. It's been a busy day. He was starting to wonder  
if there was anybody who didn't want to kill him today, "Actually I  
didn't do anything to him at all; we're like best buddies now."

Yuki was just about to give Tohma black eye, when they heard the  
unmistakable rumble of thunder. "That's weird." Tohma wondered aloud  
hoping to distract Yuki from hitting him, "The weather was perfect all  
day before now."

"Flying fucktards!" Joe cursed as he heard the thunder. Poor Joe had  
been lost the entire time since the last chapter and had only now just  
managed to find the café. He had a bad feeling about the sudden  
appearance of this storm and pulled out his cell phone, "Todd get your  
ass to the café. I think we may have a problem."

It didn't take Todd long to help Joe find his way back to Yuki's room.  
Joe burst through the door looked around, "Where's Shuichi?" he  
demanded.

"Funny you should ask that." Yuki said motioning to Tohma, "We were  
just getting to that topic."

Joe went over to the window and pushed back the curtains, "Shit!"

"What's the matter now?"

"Yuki have you noticed the weather outside?"

Tohma heard Yuki mutter something uncomfortably under his breath, so  
he asked Yuki "What's wrong?"

Yuki flashed back into kill mode, "Just what the hell happened between you two!"

"Nothing really it was actually that Mr. Siafu that got him all worked  
up, but Shuichi managed to hold him off just fine. He saved my life."

Yuki paled at the mention of that name, "He was here?"

Joe looked at Todd, "Did you feel anything?"

"No did you?"

Joe cursed again, "Shit, I knew we should have just made Jenna come  
back. She's the only one who can warn us about that idiot anymore."

"Yuki, do you have any idea where Shuichi may have gone?"

Tohma positioned himself in front of Yuki blocking Joe, "We don't know  
where Shuichi is Yuki's been in this room the whole time." But Yuki  
did know, well he sort of knew. Without a word he got up left the  
hospital room leaving the rest of them to follow him or be left  
behind.

Joe was intrigued at Yuki's behavior he jogged up to Yuki's side, "You  
come here often? You seem to know your way around pretty well."

"No."

"Do you have a clue were we're going?" Joe found it hard to keep up  
with Yuki's pace.

"No."

"But you know where Shuichi is?"

Yuki didn't answer at first, how did he know where Shuichi was? He  
wasn't sure but he kind of knew, "Yes."

When our rescue posse finally found their way to the rooftop they  
found Shuichi in the midst of another full-blown storm. Shuichi,  
being somewhat of a pansy, could never bring himself to just jump off  
the roof, hell no. After all he was a rock god and like all proper  
rock gods he was going to go out in a spectacular blaze of glory! Fuck  
yea!

His powers had obviously gotten stronger as the storm was already his  
most violent one yet. The clouds paid no mind to nature or physics  
instead they writhed and twisted like the coils of a great black  
dragon impatiently waiting to grant its masters wish. The winds gusted  
haphazardly stirring up the driving rain in every direction as the  
lightning flickered like the long tongues of serpents, testing the  
power in the air with anticipation.

Joe and Yuki called out to Shuichi, but there was no way Shuichi could  
have heard them. Shuichi had gone past where point where he could hear  
rational thoughts anymore. He was past the nagging feeling of  
exhaustion. He did hear something in the deepest place that cried out  
to him in desperation, but it was completely drowned out by the  
terrible voice of the thunder, not that he would have listened anyway.  
Nothing mattered anymore. He was done trying to figure out what was  
going on, was done worrying about what was next, he was just done. He  
had reached a place where he did not feel anything at all. Maybe after  
he was gone, his soul could fly again like it did when he sang. Yes,  
that would feel so good. As he was swallowed by mind numbing  
emptiness, his last thought was, "So this is how it ends?"

* * *

Sheesh another chapter run amuck, I had cut it right in the middle. Ya see this is point here is the middle, there's more, Oh yes there is more, but you will get it later. Soon…. Real soon… I promise. Unless I die or something, so don't kill me. Just point out my flaws… please.

Saya the betanator really had her work cut out for her with this chapter. I have returned to my habit of writing long swirly sentences. The kind of sentences that made my English teachers cringe, but they are so much fun to write.


	16. So This Is It?

I want to give a big thanks to all you readers out there. You've put up with this story for quite a while now. I really hope you are enjoying it!

* * *

So This Is It?

Todd had wasted no time in getting the storm readings on his laptop. "What's happening?" Tohma yelled over the din of the howling wind.

"Shuichi's is trying to flat-line." Todd yelled back struggling to make his voice heard.

"What?"

"Flat-line." Todd yelled again.

"What does that mean?"

"He's overloading his power to burn himself out. He's trying to die."

Tohma didn't believe what he just heard; Shuichi would never do something like that. Tohma had become so used to bouncing his anger and frustration off of Shuichi mainly because Shuichi always bounced right back with little or no damage. That's what made Shuichi so easy to pick on. Shuichi was hurting that badly?

Joe had continued to yell to Shuichi out on the roof as something in his personality snapped under the weight. It was another Josh incident all over again. No, this can't be happening, not again. In his mind unwanted things started to flash, he could swear he heard the sound of helicopter blades in the rumble of the thunder. His nostrils filled with the smell of spent ammunitions and smoke. He was down behind enemy lines everybody was hurt some were dead he was the only one left, calling for help on a broken radio and no one was answering.

Todd noticed the change in Joe and called to him, "Joe! JOE!" Todd tried Joe's army nickname, "Sergeant Crab ass!" Joe looked at Todd, but the wild look in his eyes was one Todd had seen once before. Joe was in flashback mode.

"Shit! Yuki," Todd shouted, "I think Joe's gone bye, bye. It's up to you to get Shuichi and, from what I can tell, he doesn't have much time."

Tohma grabbed the back of Yuki's shirt, "Yuki stop, I'll get him you just stay here." Yuki just wordlessly turned and pulled his shirt out of Tohma's hands.

Tohma didn't like this at all. He jumped in front of Yuki blocking him from going out onto the roof. Todd tried to reason with Tohma, "Listen to me, Yuki is the only one who can physically touch Shuichi in this state. If Yuki doesn't get him in the next few minutes there won't be a Shuichi to save."

Tohma watched Yuki whose eyes were still straining to make out the form of Shuichi through the storm. Yuki hadn't been listening to the conversation at all as he stood in the doorway studying what was happening. He noticed Shuichi starting to sag as the storm ate away at him. Why was he doing this? Why was he so willing to give up on the people who loved him? Was he really that big of an idiot? Yuki didn't understand, but he had his own selfish reasons for not letting Shuichi go through with this. He loved that little guy, no matter how weird he was.

Yuki pushed past Tohma and took a few steps out onto the roof. He was almost blinded by the driving rain. He found he had to keep low as the wind seemed determined to blow him right off of the roof. Lightning hit the hospital air conditioner sparks few and Yuki fell to his knees. The pain in his chest from the wound was going to making his progress even more difficult, that's when he felt some hands on his back. Yuki didn't expect it, but Joe and Tohma had followed him. Yuki barely heard Joe shout over his other shoulder, "No soldier goes alone."

Yuki looked at Tohma he expected the man to start dragging him back inside instead Tohma yelled into the wind, "It's ok I won't hold you back anymore."

They helped Yuki to his feet and carefully made their way across the roof to where Shuichi was. Once they got close enough Yuki could swear he saw the clouds form themselves into the head and body of a massive dragon preparing to swallow Shuichi on the spot.

Yuki immediately pushed Joe and Tohma aside and ran to grab Shuichi. He tackled him to the ground as Shuichi screamed in protest. "No! You don't understand. I'm doing this for you! Please stop! I have to do this!" The storm seemed to pitch and scream with Shuichi's protests. Yuki grunted as the pain shooting through the cut in his chest and Shuichi's squirming to get free. He grabbed Shuichi's chin and forced his lover to look at him as he yelled "You say you love me with every other breath but this is how you show it?Whenthingsget hard youjust give up on us, on me?"

"Yu-ki." Shuichi saw the pain in his lover's eyes and stopped struggling. The storm's spell crumbled away as Shuichi passed out from exhaustion in Yuki's arms.

------------------

Hours later Joe was still fighting the bloody shadows that haunted him. He paced the hospital room quietly tracing the same steps over and over as flashes of undesirable memories played out uncontrollably. He forced his mind over to the day he came home from the war and to the happier life lived with his family, hoping to drive out the walking nightmares. He had just barely succeeded when the person in the bed sat up suddenly shaking and panting from his own inner demons.

"Where's Yuki?" Shuichi gasped.

"You've been out for a couple of hours. They had to send Yuki back in, he tore open a couple of stitches when he grabbed you on the roof." Shuichi's heart sank; just what he needed more guilt.

Joe waked over and got right in Shuichi's face "Do you mind telling me what the fuck you were trying to prove that that little stunt?"

Shuichi suddenly found it hard to speak, "I- b-but Joe, I-I was doing it for."

"For who?" Joe bellowed, "To protect your friends? Don't be such a drama queen! That's one sorry ass excuse if you ask me. You love your friends so you use them as an excuse to kill yourself? How do you think that makes them feel? Better yet, how would you feel if Yuki killed himself for the same reason?"

Joe continued to yell pace and yell despite the horrified expression on Shuichi's face, because Joe like to hear himself yell, a lot, "Why do you kids think life is something you can just throw away! This death isn't beautiful. It isn't some romantic idea! Death is scrabbling in the dirt gasping for your last breath while you beg whatever gods you believe in to give you just one more day or hour or breath. Damn you useless little bastards!"

Joe finally took note in the terror behind Shuichi's eyes and backed down a bit, "Shuichi, we have something terrible to face. Our survival will probably depend on how well we can count on each other. We don't need you there if you are going to pull shit like this; everybody needs to face this as a team. Now are you with us or not?"

Shuichi wasn't able to answer. He merely nodded yes.

"Good. There's a reason Siafu is scared of you. You need to remember that. If you play into his hands like that again, I'll kill you myself. Now get some sleep. I'll see you tomorrow. Jenna and Kuo are on their way back, once they get here we need to head out to your grandfather's place as soon as possible."

And with that, Joe left the room to catch up with Todd, who waiting in the hallway, "When did you hear from Jenna?"

"I spoke to Jenna the other day. She's on her way back."

"How are they doing over there?"

"Everything's a bit of a mess, but her family is mostly fine."

"Mostly?"

"Her dad's in the hospital, but he's going to be ok."

"What about Kuo?"

"She's got him working his ass off doing volunteer work with her."

Todd laughed loudly enough to make a nurse to shush him, "Somehow I just can't see him volunteering for anything other holding down the occasional couch with his ass and making sure the TV doesn't float away."

Joe smiled, "Ah, the things people will let themselves get suckered into for true love. It's a beautiful thing."

It took Shuichi exactly two minutes of being by himself before he was bored out of his mind and snuck off to find Yuki's room. And it didn't take him long to find it, since he had super special Yuki radar powers. He found Yuki sound asleep and quietly slipped up next to him in bed. Shuichi was about to fall to sleep as well when Yuki spoke. "Are you ok?"

"That's what I should be asking you."

"Yes, your little stunt almost killed me, but you didn't answer my question."

"Yuki, I tried to kill Tohma."

"Really? So did I."

"Yuki, I'm serious! I really almost killed him."

"He probably deserved it. What did he do?"

"He said I was no better than Kitazawa."

Yuki raised an eyebrow, "and you let him live after that?"

"Yuki! I'm not joking. One more second and he would have really been dead."

Yuki gave a big sigh of frustration, "I spoke to Tohma he told me everything was fine, so what are you worried about? He said you two are, and I quote, 'buddies'".

"'Buddies'? He actually used the word buddies?"

"Well, I was about to punch him at the time."

"Awww Yuki you were going to punch him for me!" Shuichi locked Yuki in a fan boy glomp complete with drool.

"Ew, Get off you little creep!"

* * *

Next chapter summary: The offering is accepted as the blue eye turns crimson. The creature from the nightmares comes, but even it is having bad dreams.

Like the overblown dramatics? (The creature spoken of is not the Id) It's something else….. Something only one other person in the universe who knows about and I know she's not going to blab… At least I hope not. 


	17. Old man and the mountain

I'm baaack. I am so sorry it's taken months to update, but I hope this chapter makes up for the delay.

* * *

Torrid angles with deadly passions bared

The dagger's bite

The hollow laugh

And darkness fills the air.

* * *

Deep in the rural mountains of Japan, something stirred. The people in a small village at the foot of a great mountain felt it. It was as if the tiny village had somehow fallen out of place with the rhythms of the earth. The early summer air had become unseasonably hot and dry causing plants and ancient trees to wither. The people did their best to hold their lives together, but edges of society were starting to become tattered and frayed. Old friendships grew strained and snapped like dry twigs as the people felt the odd pressure around them. Even the ground itself felt unstable, undependable, giving the people the feeling that the world was about to drop out from underneath them. And at night the children made silent prayers for somebody, anybody to bring back the rain. 

> > >

At the US base in Japan, two soldiers were hanging out by the Colonel's door eavesdropping on a conversation on the other side, but they didn't need to strain to hear the screaming match going on in the room. As the two listened in silence another service man found them, "Hey Guys, what's going on?"

"Shhhh.. listen"

They all listened to an angry voice yelling, "Listen, Bruce. We're almost done. We just need a tiny bit more equipment."

"No!" They heard the Colonel shout back. "You will not get so much as a used post-it note! Joe, your funding has been cut pending an investigation. The top brass wants to know what you and your band of freaks are really up to!"

"Bruce, we only need a few more days. Surely you can give us just a few more days… and a helicopter."

"What, and just who would be flying it?"

"I will. It's like I told you before, we can't have any outside people…"

"Listen Joe" Bruce cut him off. "I have entertained this, this lunacy out of respect for you, but it's over Joe. You have drawn too much attention to yourself and you can't expect me to turn the blind eye anymore. Besides judging by this last report you sent you're either completely nuts or a new threat to homeland security!"

"Crazy? Do you think I'm crazy, Bruce?" The three soldiers in the hall heard something crash and then Joe's voice again this time low and angry, "How's that for crazy?"

"Joe that's enough of your parlor tricks!" Bruce sputtered as he stood up to meet Joe eye to eye, "Monsters, magic powers, gay rock stars! Joe what do you think this is? A fucking circus? I've managed to keep your new talents a secret, but the top brass is getting suspicious. We both know what's going to happen if _they_ get wind of what you can do." Bruce took a deep breath as Joe ceased his attack, "It's over Joe, you need to leave."

"So that's the way it's going to be?" Joe asked with a dangerously quiet tone. There was a long pause of silence during which you could hear an old friendship crumbling into dust. The three soldiers outside were smart enough to scramble away from the door just in the nick of time as it burst open and a very angry Joe stormed out of the office and down the hall.

The Colonel had gotten out of his chair to watch Joe's stormy departure. He had the look of regret in his eyes.

The third soldier turned to his buddies, "Who the fuck was that?"

"Soldier, that lunatic was one of the bravest men Vietnam had ever seen." The Colonel said sadly.

"What happened?"

Bruce was startled by the solder's disrespect for his friend and indignantly snapped, "Don't you guys have somewhere you need to be?"

"Sorry sir!" They saluted and scuttled up the hallway and out of sight, leaving the Colonel alone in the hallway still staring in the direction Joe had disappeared in. "Joe, I don't know what happened to you, but please stay out of trouble." He muttered before shuffling back to his desk.

> > >

Back at the hospital Yuki was drifting in that little place just barely between sleep and consciousness. He felt Shuichi's comforting warmth next to him and sighed happily, but something was off. Shuichi didn't smell right he smelt like Tohma's cologne. Ew, Yuki thought why does he smell like Tohma? Yuki wondered as he opened his eyes groggily. Even before his eyes fully focused he saw that the head of hair snuggled next to him was not pink but blond! Gahh! Yuki startedand pushed Tohma off of him. Tohma hit the floor with a thud and a surprised **"O**of!

"Oh Eiri you're awake! How are you feeling?" Tohma mused as he quickly got back on his feet.

"Don't give me that crap where the hell is Shuichi?" Yuki growled as he looked around for his lover.

"He left." Tohma said hesitantly.

"He left?" Yuki couldn't believe his ears. Shuichi doesn't just leave, "Where did he go?"

"He left for his grandfather's dojo." Tohma gave a weak smile and took a step back out of Yuki's reach.

"What? So help me Tohma if you did anything to chase him off I'm gonna** -**"

"I didn't do anything Eiri! I swear. He told me he would be gone for a day or two and asked me to take care of you." Tohma said as he jumped back onto his brother-in-law's bed ready to smother _his_ Eiri.

"Get the fuck off!" Yuki whacked Tohma with his pillow. The blow managed to knock Tohma off balance and sent him careening off the bed for the second time. "Ugh" Yuki grunted disgustedly, "You're even creepier than Shuichi! Where's my phone?" Yuki started rummaging through the end table next to the bed.

"Shuichi said he would call you when he got to the Dojo." Tohma said indignantly as he stood and tested the new bruise on his butt, "You won't be able to reach him while he is traveling though the mountains. You are better off waiting for him to call you."

> > >

Meanwhile, Shuichi and the others were busy traveling not**-**so-merrily down the wrong road to Tadashi Shindou's dojo. Now that they were lacking any backing from the military, the entire group found themselves jam-packed into Joe's econo-box of a car. Everybody had just come to the agreement that they were completely lost, a very loud game of 'whose fault is it' had broken out. It was Joe's fault because he was driving, it was Jenna's fault because she was navigatingand it was Kou's fault because he downloaded the map from a shady internet site. It was Shuichi's fault for not knowing exactly where his grandfather lived, and it was Todd's fault for no real reason at all, but nobody was going to let him get off the hook that easily.

It was at the point when Joe was threatening to drive off the cliff when, Kou accidentally spilled his soda on Todd's laptopAs Todd's laptop fizzled on an overdose of caffeinated sugary goodness, Todd, having had all he could stand of this ride to hell, decided to take out his anger on Kou. With Jenna holding Kou down, Todd tried to see if he could choke Kou to death with his own crummy map. As the melee ensued, poor Shuichi just sat in silence as he pined over Yuki because it had been a whole forty minutes since he had last seen his lover.

Joe turned the next bend in the road and his eyes met an worrying site, "Holy freakin'hell" the others heard him whisper in awe. Instantly the car went silent as they gasped at the sight now before them. One brown mountain rising among the green ones that gave off a sickly aura, dark and malevolent. Shuichi shuddered at the sight of it. There was no mistaking that they had found the place they were looking for.

It took Kou a full thirty seconds to think of something stupid to say, "What do you think caused that?

"What do you think caused it moron. It's gotta be the reason we're here." Jenna scolded.

"If it can do that to a mountain how the hell are we supposed to go up against it?"

Shuichi studied the damage to his grandfather's beloved mountain. He knew how much his grandfather loved every tree like a personal friend. Seeing the old man's world withered like this, Shuichi came to the conclusion that his grandfather was going to be in an especially bad mood and Shuichi was right.

> > >

It wasn't long before they found themselves at the front gate of the Shindou home. As they got out of the car and approached the main house, Shuichi noticed it was strangely silent. No birds, no insects, no signs of life anywhere. Shuichi could almost see the death emanating all around them and he could certainly feel it. It was like a constant pressure coming in from all sides some kind of thick tension in the air. At first Shuichi feared that something had happened to his grandfather.

The others got out of the car behind Shuichi and followed him to the front door of his grandfather's home. It was clear in this once beautiful placesomething had sucked the life out of it leaving only empty shells where there were once flowers and trees.

All around the house and grounds were some of the largest trees Shuichi had ever known. Shuichi's grandfather had lovingly tended to each one on a daily basis. Under the shade of those trees were the koi ponds that were once teaming with sleek beautiful fish. Now the ponds appeared to be nothing more than empty murky pits and the trees bore dry brown leaves. Shuichi realized the damage was even worse than he had previously thought, as he walked up to the front door and prepared to knock. Before Shuichi's clenched fist even reached on the door it opened revealing a very haggard looking Grandpa Shindou.

He said nothing, he just stared at Shuichi with piercing violet eyes that seemed to be filled with regret. He looked as if he had aged twenty years since Shuichi had seen him only about a week ago. His clothing was rumpled and he had scratches over his hands and on one side of his face. One on his arm looked as if it had been quite deep. The others stood behind Shuichi wordlessly. Grandpa looked up from Shuichi to at the rest of the assembled cast. "You shouldn't have comeYou will only slow him down." He said sternly.

Joe inhaled sharply through gritted teeth, "No soldier goes alone."

Although Grandpa Shindou pretended that he didn't expect the others he had prepared a simple meal for them and beds for the night. Shuichi got another good look at the scratches on his grandfather's arms and face. The old man also appeared to be sick. He seemed unsteady on his feet and Shuichi could see him struggle to keep his hands still when he poured them tea. "Grandpa are you ok?" Shuichi asked softly

The old man did not answer his grandson. He seemed to be concentrating very hard on something or maybe he was just ignoring everybody again. Silence had fallen over the entire group as everybody ate. It was an awkward silence that nobody dared to break.

Shuichi kept looking around as if he was expecting somebody finally he asked, "Grandpa where are all your students?"

Tadashi Shindou did not look up at his grandson. He stared at a spot on the floor as he ran his hand through his ragged hair. "I had to send everybody home. The sickness of the mountain affects everybody accept those of the Shindou line, but even you will feel it after a while."

Weren't there other people living on the mountain here, what happened to them?

This time Tadashi looked Shuichi right in the eye. He was fooling himself if he thought he could spare his grandson the horrors of what had been going on this past week. "Some people left the mountain. Those that chose to stay have either gone mad from the sickness or are dead." He said looking a bit pained.

"What do you mean 'gone mad from the sickness'?" Todd asked as everybody stared at the old man.

"I will explain later**."** Tadashi announced as he stood up quickly, "Now, I have prepared rooms for each of you. I suggest you get ready for the night The climb to the cave will not be easy."

Jenna stood up outraged, "Back the truck up old man. I think I want to hear your answer now!" Jenna demanded only to be stopped by a hand on her elbow. She looked to see Joe who was seated next to her still holding his tea in the other hand.

"Joe?"

"Jenna let it go for now." He said quietly.

"Why?" she whined.

"Just trust me, please?" Joe insisted.

Jenna sat back down in a defeated huff. After everybody ate they helped grandpa Shindou clean up and left to their rooms. Shuichi was sitting on his bed trying desperately to dial Yuki when he was visited by his grandfather. Grandpa Shindou was still looking ill as he stood in the doorway surveying his grandson before speaking, "Shuichi do you have it?"

"Have what?" Shuichi asked nervously.

Tadashi groaned and rolled his eyes, "Idiot! The blade! Let me see it."

"Oh, yea it's right here." Shuichi pulled the dagger out of his backpack and handed it to his grandfather. Grandpa Shindou felt something sticky on it. He sniffed the blade, "Peanut butter?"

Shuichi grimaced in fear, "Uh, yea about that, ya see the other knives were in the wash and"

"Silence!" the older Shindou bellowed.

"Hey you were the one who said and I quote 'I don't care if you use it to open letters.'" Shuichi said as he stood up defiantly.

"Which part of silence don't you understand? Let me see your hand." Shuichi didn't like the sound of this. He nervously held out his hand, asgrandpa Shindou pulled the blade from its sheath, then moved surprisingly quick for an old man and gave Shuichi a nice gash across his wrist

Shuichi hissed in pain and grabbed his bleeding wrist,"Shit! Grandpa what'd ya do that for you crazy old bastard!" The wound wasn't deep but it bled just enough.

The elder Shindou held up the blade with his grandson's blood on it. As the red slowly ran down the sharp edge, the jewel eye on the dagger changed from ice blue to crimson.

"Yes, It has accepted the offering. Now that he knows you are here He will come tonight. I hope he has the answers we need." Grandpa Shindou nodded as he stared at the blade admiringly.

He? Who are you talking about?

"I have finally discovered the true owner of that blade. He has been trying to visit us in our dreams, but he is too weak to speak to us through them. He will come for you tonight. Try to get some sleep."

Shuichi asked shocked, "Sleep? You expect me to sleep? Who's coming grandpa?"

"The owner of the blade, idiot." Grandpa Shindou said as he turned to leave Shuichi's room.

"What? You told me that knife was supposed to be thousands of years old! How could the owner** --**" But Tadashi had left while Shuichi was still talking.

Shuichi found him self alone. Sleep, yeah right how am I supposed to sleep? He scoffed as he went for a walk around the garden in the hope of finding a decent cell phone signal. He crisscrossed the garden a few times, but no matter where he went the little zero signal symbol was all he could get on his cell phone. He missed Yuki. If he were home he would be curled up in bed with him instead of wandering around in the chilly air of a dying mountain. He found Jenna sitting on one of the large garden rocks in the middle of the garden. The rock about three feet tall and was big enough for her to lie on her back and stare up at the stars.

Jenna sat up as Shuichi approached, "You look like you lost your puppy. What's wrong?"

"I can't get through to Yuki!" Shuichi was on the verge of tears.

"That can happen when there is a giant mountain blocking the cell phone signal."  
Shuichi joined Jenna in looking at what was left of the moon, "Tomorrow night is a new moon, that can't be a good sign." Jenna muttered.

"Are you ready to go find out what's up there." Shuichi was half asking himself this question.

Jenna shrugged unsure of herself, "I guess so. I don't think it's a good idea to wait for it to come down here."

"Are you scared?" Came Kou's voice from behind Jenna scaring her right off the rock.

"Freaking jerk!" Jenna stood up to swat at Kou, "Of courseI'm scared."

Kou blocked her half-hearted attack, "Me too. I get the feeling Joe's not telling us everything."

"What's the matter Kou, you couldn't sleep either?" Shuichi asked.

Kou shook his head and looked up at the mountain, "No, Man this sucks. I hate waiting like this. We should just go up there now. Why do we have to wait?"

"Because it's hard to see at night." Jenna patronized as she continued to brush herself off, "I'm going to try to get some sleep. You two should do the same. Good night guys." She said as she headed back to her room.

Kou looked as if he wanted to say something, but instead he just watched as Jenna disappeared back into the house, before kicking a pebble he found in the dust, "She's right. I'm going to try turn in too. Come on Shuichi."

Shuichi nodded and followed Kou back into the house for the night.

Shuichi did manage to get to sleep, but as soon as he did, the dream started again. He found himself fleeing something in complete darkness. He felt it fumbling behind him slow and relentless. Then Shuichi felt the giant footsteps that rumbled like distant thunder. No matter how fast he ran it was always right behind him, between each footfall were a few ominous seconds of complete silence. He didn't know how long he had tried to outrun the thing behind him before he tripped. This was it. He knew he wasn't getting anywhere. Running was useless Shuichi had to face the thing behind him. He stood and pulled his dagger from it's sheathe and stood his ground against the blackness. He felt the thing stop and study him for a second. Shuichi couldn't see a thing but he felt its breath. He held the blade in front of him with both hands shaking. Suddenly he was grabbed up and shaken violently.

He woke to find his grandfather was shaking him, "Shit Grandpa! Don't do that!" The old man said nothing as he stared down his grandson. Shuichi couldn't make out his expression, "What is it grandpa?"

That's when Shuichi heard it, a steady heavy thrum, thrum, thrum, like huge muffled footsteps. Grandpa didn't speak as he walked out of Shuichi's room. Confused Shuichi got up and followed him out of the dojo and into the open area of the garden. The heavy steady thrumming sound grew in pitch. The ground seemed to shake with each beat louder and louder, it was getting closer. He could see the trees sway back and forth scattering the few dying leaves that still clung to the barren branches. Something very large was moving towards them through the forest towards them. Shuichi's eyes went wide as finally an immense white form that seemed to glow with power stepped from the forest into the clearing.

* * *

I want to give out a special thank you to a few people for this and Saya and Angeloflight for their support and encouragement. And a giant hug to Sliefoxx, who helped make this chapter possible by helping me pull it apart and fix it line by line.

Next chapter is on it's way!


	18. The mountain's Roar

Oh my, oh my, you poor readers. I have had this story on the back burner half finished for way longer than I should have.

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Tadashi Shindou stepped up behind his frightened grandson and nudged him towards the great beast now standing before them. The very air itself seemed to go silent in dread of the creature in its midst. The massive white tiger glowed like the moon as it casually surveyed the garden before turning its huge head and magnificent ice blue eyes to the terrified Shuichi before him. The creature sat on its haunches never breaking its stare as Shuichi heard its voice. "So, you are the one who has come to save us all?" Shuichi didn't hear the words come from outside he heard them from within his mind. The tiger's voice rumbled with infinite power and yet at the same time it was gentle. 

"N-n-no. I-I just." Shuichi stammered looking for a place to hide. Tadashi stood firm behind his grandson with one hand on Shuichi's shoulder, knowing full well that if he gave Shuichi the chance his grandson would flee like a little girl.

The great Tiger God of the West smiled to himself. He had a soft spot for humans and little frightened things. Mostly because, even though he was spirit who was eons of years old, he was the spirit of a cat, a cat who liked to play games. "Don't be afraid little hero. Do you know who I am?"

"Um Mister Giant Kitty, um please don't call me that. I am not a hero."

"Have it your way." The tiger mused. This was the first time anyone had ever called him a 'giant kitty'. He had met a lot of humans in his long life and Shuichi looked to be one he could really have some fun with. He really wanted to just mess with Shuichi, but right now was not the time for cat and mouse games. The tiger asked again, "Do you know who I am?"

Shuichi couldn't get his mouth to move he stood there gaping, struggling against his Grandfather's firm grip. He had heard stories like this before; maybe the question was a riddle and if he got it wrong he would be a snack food! Finally he managed to stammer, "If I guess wrong, are you gonna eat me?"

Tadashi smacked Shuichi on the back of his head causing Shuichi to wail, "Grandpa! It was a legitimate question!"

The white beast gave a small cough, or sneeze or maybe it was stifled laughter as it quivered for a moment before regaining its composure. Then it lowered itself on its forepaws in an attempt to make itself somewhat less menacing and said softly, "I see, so the modern world has lost touch with the old." Shuichi couldn't help but notice that as startling as this creature was, there seemed to be an air of desperation in its movements. It was as if it was being haunted by pain from unseen wounds. It was now that Shuichi first noticed its shining fur was actually patchy and uneven with icy scars showing here and there. "I am known as Byakko, and I have come to ask your aid little hero." He finished with a slow swish of his enormous stripped tail.

Shuichi's grand father hissed in Shuichi's ear, "Ask him!"

Shuichi nodded dully before taking a deep breath, "We uhh think the world is about to be destroyed… and uhh?" Shuichi was still fighting visions of becoming a kitty snack.

"I know." Byakko interrupted, "That is why we need you to save us. I am sorry little hero, but the as long as the mountain is dying I will not be able to help you in your task, unless you can stop the sickness by tomorrow night this mountain will die, and the rest of the world will begin suffer this same fate."

Tadashi was tired of Shuichi beating around the bush he stepped out from behind his grandson and addressed the tiger god with irritation. "We know that, but do you know how to stop it?"

"I'm sorry, but no one really knows the answer to that question."

Shuichi was beside himself. "What do you mean you don't know? I thought at least you could help stop this!" Shuichi insisted.

"I am sorry, but this thing is older than I am. All I know of the creature and the fate of the earth are the bits handed to me by the stars."

Shuichi was for all sense of the word, pissed, "What are you talking about! Why can't anybody give me one, just one straight fucking answer!" he fumed forgetting for a second he was talking to a ten ton tiger god. "Uh. I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean." Shuichi immediately cowered when he saw odd expression cross Byakko's face. If he didn't know better, he would say that the tiger had just smiled at him.

A flicker of mirth played behind the ice blue eyes for a second before Byakko spoke again. "The Id is a creature born ages ago from the empty void of space and it carries that emptiness in its soul. Once it fully awakens and realizes its surroundings, the Id rages out of control causing death to the planet; it spews a sickness that causes the creatures of the planet to turn on one another until none are left alive. Once the planet as been completely destroyed it returns to sleep, drifting in space until it is swept up in the dust of a new planet being born. It hates everything because it knows nothing but hate. Everything it touches, dies. So far nothing has been able to stop it. It is earth's death sentence that was written into the fabric of the planet at its creation.

Shuichi reeled for a minute or two, "And we are supposed to do what against this thing?"

"All I can tell you is that the thing in the cave cannot be destroyed with hatred. Nor can it be killed by love. You will have to do what you feel needs to be done when the moment comes. You were born to answer this call, so you will know what to do."

Shuichi gave a frustrated sigh, "Wow, that's beyond vague. Isn't there anybody who actually knows anything?"

"No, but I do know your true power can be used any way you want. What you choose to do with it will be up to you. So I ask you this little hero, do you love this world?"

"Don't call me that."

"Answer the question." Byakko swished his long tail again, letting it lightly thump on the ground next to the two men.

Shuichi thought about his answer. He looked out at the horizon and thought about his answer. He noticed that the light glowing up from a distant city. The glow faded into the black night sky that glittered with stars that could only be seen this far from the city lights, "Yes"

"Good. You will do fine. I will trust your instincts."

"That's one of us."

"Take my blade with you. As long as you carry it part of me will be with you." Byakko said as he stood up unsteadily from his spot.

Shuichi panicked: That was it? He yelled, "Hey, why can't you do something about this? Aren't you a god?"

Byakko gave a heavy sigh, "When I made this place my home my spirit became linked to this mountain. As the poison spreads across it, I suffer along with this land. It is taking all the strength to keep this mountain from dying entirely, but my strength comes from the mountain so when it is weak, I am weak. If this mountain dies then I will die with it."

"You're dying?" Shuichi gasped.

"I have been alive for more years than there are stars in the sky and I do not intend to die anytime soon. I have faith in you little hero. I look forward to meeting you again." With that the great tiger turned to go back into the forest.

"Wait!"

Byakko paused but did not turn around. He gave another heavy sigh, "I am tired little hero. Please let me rest. I will do what I can to aid you." With that the tiger-god faded into mist and vanished.

Shuichi was shaking he was even more confused than before, unable to stand up any longer he fell to his knees staring up at the endless sky above, torn between the desires to run away or fall apart right there at his grandfather's feet. He felt a gentle hand on his shoulder. Shuichi turned to look at this grandfather who was also staring at the inky black sky above them. He helped his grandson to his feet. They turned to got back inside the dojo only to see the rest of the crew assembled in front of the doorway looking a bit shocked. Tadashi breathed a long sigh and asked, "Were you able to hear him?"

"So that's what has been giving us all nightmares." Jenna whispered softly.

Joe was still hoping he had just dreamed all that, "Yes, I think we all heard him, but how do you know we can trust that thing?"

Tadashi gave Joe an insulted glare, "Did you not feel his spirit? He is what he says he is."

Joe wasn't even looking at Tadashi he was still staring at the spot Byakko had disappeared, "Don't get me wrong, I've just never taken orders from anything but higher ranking humans, even then I've not been known for listening very well."

"There is more I need to tell you about your journey. I think now is as good a moment as any." Tadashi announced as he led them back into the house. Tadashi waited for every body to get comfortable around the table before starting his speech. "I want each one of you to think about your decision to accompany my grandson. This journey will not be a simple hike. Shuichi, you asked me before about what happened to my friends who lived here on the mountain." All eyes turned on the old man as he pushed up his sleeve revealing some deep gashes along his arm that were only just starting to heal, "I went to check on one of my neighbors a few days ago. I came upon a horrible scene and I was forced to kill one of my friends in order to save my own life."

Shuichi gasped and everyone remained in stunned silence as they as cracks began to form in the emotional mask Tadashi Shindou had worn since they met him, "There may still be a few people left alive, if you meet them they will try to kill you. This sickness takes away all the things that make us human. What is left is nothing but the instincts of hate and fear. Even the animals are stripped of reason. They bite and scratch and kill just for the sake of killing. You will have no choice, if you encounter anybody not of the Shindou bloodline you will be forced to fight for your life or die at their hands. If any of you are not prepared for this, then you need to stay here. I will not have you burdening my grandson on his quest. This is why I will not be able to accompany you." With that Tadashi stood swiftly and swept out of the room in a vain attempt to salvage some of his dignity in the face of foreigners.

Shuichi got up and followed him, "Grandpa!"

Tadashi was sitting in his room, hunched over with his back to the doorway when Shuichi finally caught up with him.

"Grandpa," Shuichi said softly, "are you ok?"

"I'm fine." Tadashi grumped abruptly.

"Then why are you hiding in your room?" Shuichi said as he carefully entered the room as if he was entering a snake's den.

"Did I say you could come barging in here!" Tadashi yelled in a desperate attempt to drive his grandson away.

"Grandpa, I'm just worried about you. Are you sure you're okay?" Shuichi said taking another step towards his grandfather.

"I told you I'm fine." But Tadashi choked on his own words and it was apparent that the old man not _fine. _

Shuichi was now directly behind his grandfather. He could now see that Tadashi was holding something in his hands. It was a broken picture frame containing an old black and white photograph. It was a picture of Tadashi with a group of his students. Shuichi had seen the photo before. "Grandpa was the man you killed one of your students?"

"Yes, Shuichi he was." There was a long pause and Shuichi didn't know what to say, but he didn't have to, " Shuichi, I know I have been rough on you. I was afraid to get to know you, I was afraid of seeing who you had become, but I see now you have grown into a fine person."

Shuichi couldn't resist, "It took a twenty ton tiger to get you to notice that I'm not a total screw-up?"

"You're still a screw up! Tadashi yelled, "But you've come a long way and you have become much stronger than I had ever hoped for." grandfather shook his head sadly, "Shuichi, you are not ready for this, but we have no choice to send you. I will not be mean to you anymore; I am speaking to you as a grandfather now. Just remember that the world is not just enemies and friends. It is all one place. Good and bad. Can you accept things as they are?"

"I have no fucking clue what you are trying to say. Have you been taking obscurity lesions from Byakko?"

"You will have to do for the world what you did for your … monk.."

"My monk?" Shuichi wondered out loud, "Oh you mean Yuki."

"Yes."

"He is not 'my monk' his name is Yuki, it's pronounced YU-KI Come on say it, it's just four letters and none of them are hard to pronounce. Try it with me.."

Tadashi hit Shuichi on the head, "Shut up! I will call him whatever I see fit! Now go back to your room and get ready!"

Shuichi wailed, "I thought you said you weren't going to be mean to me anymore!" as he dodged another strike from his grandfather and ran out of the room.

By Mid morning, five travelers found themselves staring up at a daunting site. The trail up mountain rose steeply into the thick mass of dying trees and vegetation.

Joe had been pacing madly back and forth as the others got their stuff ready for the climb. He was trying to stay out of flashback mode, but the dry forest, and the path ahead when he didn't know who was a friend or enemy, the thought of every man woman and child being his enemy again was seriously taking a toll on Joe's psyche.

Koutarou was the first to whine, "Hello? Climb? What mean this crawling over rocks and junk?"

Joe raised an eyebrow at the idiocy of the remark, "How else did you expect to get up there?"

"Climb that? Are you nuts? This ain't Lord of the Rings, Frodo." Koutarou

"Well we do have a top of the charts musical genius here." Jenna said throwing her arm over Shuichi, "Shuichi darling why don't pull a few strings and score us a nice ride please!"

"No good." Shuichi said shaking his head and taking Jenna's hand off of his shoulder, "I really pissed off my boss when I tried to kill him the other day. There's no guarantee he wouldn't have us dropped off a very steep cliff if given the chance."

"Guys we don't have time for this," Todd announced as the put on his backpack loaded with _essential_ gear.

"No.", Koutarou protested, "I think there is always time enough to wait for helicopters. It's called back up. It's time we called in the army."

Joe sighed with disgust, "We can't involve more people than we have to. We don't know what we are going to face up there. Regular people will just get in the way. Don't you remember what Byakko and Tadashi told us, anyone not of our bloodline will just try to kill us. Besides, the army has cut my connections ... Something about an incident with a ruined tank so now the army doesn't let me within 200 yards of the heavy equipment anymore." Joe noticed the looks everybody was giving him and shrugged, "Long story. Now if all of you are done wasting your breath and our time, I'm going up. If the rest of you morons prefer to wait for the Id to walk down here and eat you, that's up to you."

"So you're telling me you would rather be delivery food?"

And so it begins.

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Many thanks to my beta reader and to all of you who kept waiting this long. I do have this written up to the end I just have to fix and get it readable. 


	19. ascent

Byakko was in his shrine, thinking things no ancient god should think. Maybe it was because he was partial to the color pink, maybe through the eons of existence he found a taste for pop music, who knew. The other gods would find his new soft side an endless source of reasons to torment him over. A god actually caring whether a single mortal lived or died in the process to save the Earth was not something gods did. Byakko didn't really care about that, the thing he did care about, was Shuichi. He knew that Shuichi's journey would take him to the brink of existence and even if he was successful, there was no way any mortal soul could come back from that place. There was no coming back, either way that one little mortal would be lost. Shuichi's loss shouldn't matter when the entire world was concerned, but Byakko had taken a shine to that little human. It was then Byakko promised to himself that if there was a way to bring Shuichi back he would find it.

Byakko had an idea of how to do that he remembered something odd about Shuichi. He had seen the impression of another human on Shuichi's soul. It was a person that every fiber of Shuichi's being seemed to call to. Yes, Byakko thought to himself, "if there is any hope at all, it will have to be that one to call Shuichi back from the abyss. If that one can't do it, then no one can." Byakko stood and stretched his huge body. What he had to do now was going to take most of what little energy he had left, but for Shuichi it seemed worth the effort. Byakko smiled to himself and prepared to bring one Yuki Usagi to the mountain. Byakko also hoped that this Yuki person would be almost as much fun as Shuichi.

Back in the City, Yuki was out of the hospital and pacing the apartment in a funk. Shuichi had just left him without even a decent goodbye and the little good for nothing leech didn't even bother to call him. And then there was this crazy weather, thick dark clouds with no rain in sight. Even the most mundane things seemed uncertain somehow. He looked out over the brooding city feeling dusty, dark, and parched.

He had started work on another novel and found himself killing off everybody after a few pages. He took a look at the last line of drivel he had just written and deleted the whole story. Leaning back in his chair, he started to wonder why Shuichi hadn't called him yet. He thought about calling Shuichi, but decided against it. Yuki lit a cigarette and went to look out the window again. The sky was gray and dark, but it still wasn't raining. Yuki looked at the murky twisting clouds that refused to yield in the sky. They were a lot like the ones that night with Shuichi on the roof of the Hospital. Yuki shuddered at that thought.

He almost didn't notice the movement reflected in the window glass. Yuki whirled around to find, nothing. Was his mind playing tricks? Before he had time to dismiss the apparition he felt something all around him. A whisper distant and unclear almost more felt than heard, "He needs you. If you don't go to him he will not come back from where he has gone. You have to bring him back to this world."

And then silence.

"Damn it, now I'm hallucinating." Yuki muttered to no one in particular as he rummaged in the medicine cabinet for something stronger than aspirin. Yuki tried to just dismiss what happened, but he was stating to worry about Shuichi's lack of contact. He placed the call to Shuichi's cell and got nothing. "He must be out of range." Yuki muttered disgustedly, he was starting to get anxious, "Why the hell do I have to go get him?"

"Because you're the only one who can.", the voice answered.

Yuki spun around looking for a source of the voice, but found nothing but his empty apartment. Well he needed the drive to clear his head anyway, besides who wants to stay in an apartment with creepy voices. There is nothing worse than voices in your head that answer your questions.

Yes, Yuki thought, that would be nice, a long drive into the mountains. Maybe he would even stop in and see a certain purple eyed old man he was meaning to settle an score with. Yuki decided on the spot that his muses would not return to him until he gave grandpa Shindou a piece of his mind. It had nothing to do with checking up on Shuichi. Really it didn't. If you ask he will tell you that you're crazy. He would probably punch you as well. So don't ask.

Back on the mountain, Joe found himself wrestling with old demons again. He lead the others up the mountain at a brisk pace. He was trying to take his mind off of the visions of bloodier days that kept bubbling back up no matter how hard the tried to push them back down. He was back to fighting his secret war.

He didn't notice that Jenna had managed to catch up to him. She walked along side of him for a few minutes, silently taking stock in Joe's condition before blurting out, "Hey what's on your mind?"

Joe was startled for a second by Jenna's question, but managed to grumble out, "You don't want to know."

"Come on gramps. Stop moping are you having a flashback again? The war is over give it up."

Joe gave her a wry smile, "Jenna you have no idea what the hell you are talking about, but that's why I like you."

As they trudged on the complaints became fewer as the group grew too tired to complain anymore. The problem was mainly finding the cave, Todd took every opportunity to use is laptop to find a path but it only seemed to get everybody even more lost.

Then there was the eerie silence. There was no sound of wind, or birds, insects anything. The whole mountain was as still as death, and the crew slowly began to mimic their surroundings. They stumbled up the mountain with the terrain taking a toll on each of them wearing each one down little by little as they tiny band trekked up the dying mountainside.

The higher they got into the mountain the more bones and dead animals they saw, smiling skulls leering at them from the dead undergrowth. Prey animals like deer were torn limb from limb but not eaten. Foxes and raccoon-dog ripped open by something. The animals that had long ago been driven mad by the Id's presence.

"This is why we couldn't involve other people. Do you understand now? This is what happens to everything touched by its poison." Joe said over Shuichi's shoulder as Shuichi was checking out the grizzly scene.

The silence was broken when Kyuo twisted his ankle on a rock and sat down to curse about it. "Mother fucking mountain." It was then he noticed the rock was actually a rotting skull of some unfortunate animal, "What the fuck are we doing up here anyway. This is stupid. I didn't ask for this. I just want to go home."

"Shut up you baby. You know as well as any of us why we're here." Todd yelled, who had already taken advantage of the stop as an opportunity to break out his laptop again.

Jenna leaned down and growled in Kyou's ear, "We're here because the nightmares we used to have are going to become real."

Kuo paled at her words and nodded thickly as he felt the knot clench in his throat.

Meanwhile, Yuki had just made it to the deserted looking dojo. It was the same as when Shuichi had first arrived, a desolate shadow that the wind itself seemed to have forgotten. The plants that had been lovingly planted around the house had all withered to husks. Yuki surveyed the area for signs of life, but found nothing. The only problem was he had a creepy feeling that something was watching him from somewhere. He mentally cursed at himself, what the hell was he doing up here anyway and where was Shuichi? This was embarrassing, chasing after that idiot all the way here only to find nothing. But what if something had happened to Shu? Yuki approached the building and went to knock on the door. Nobody answered, so he tried again knocking a bit louder and yelling, "Hey, old man are you in there? Hello?". For a few moments there was still no sound at all. Yuki was about to give up when he finally heard shuffling and the door being fumbled with, it opened with a slow creak and Yuki was staring down at two very angry lavender colored eyes.

"So you've come to see my grandson have you?"

"Actually I just found myself in the neighborhood. He must have annoyed you to death by now so,… hey you look like hell."

"Wait a minute, how is it you are not mad?"

"I'm pissy, but not mad."

"No, how is it you are not crazy?"

"How is it you're not racked with arthritis?"

Tadashi stared hard at Yuki incredulously, "Don't you feel anything?"

"Yea, I could feel your creepy eyes watching me the whole way here."

"I have better things to do than to watch for stray monks." Tadashi huffed.

"Whatever," Yuki lit his cigarette.

"Did you see anything on your way up here?"

"Trees."

"I mean anything strange?"

"You."

"You are the most hopeless despicable, incorrigible…"

"Geez don't get you yukata in a knot." Interrupted Yuki, "I did see something, but I don't know what it was."

"Was it a white tiger about the size of a house?"

Yuki stared at the old man in disbelief for a second, "Maybe, but I've probably gone mad."

"I thought you said you were pissy."

"That's it, I'm leaving now. Point me in the direction of Shuichi and we will be going." Yuki said looking past Tadashi for any sign of his lover.

"Shuichi isn't here, he's on the mountain, you can't follow him or you will succumb to the sickness of the mountain and he will be forced to kill you."

"Sounds like a plan." Yuki said as he made his way past grandpa Shindou to the back yard.

"Did you not hear me?"

"Yea, yea I heard ya mountain, sickness, death. So far you are making as much sense as that crazy chick Jenna."

Yuki stepped into the back yard only to be met by Byakko sitting patiently in the garden. Yuki stopped cold, the cigarette in his mouth dropped to the ground as he stared at the sight of the huge white tiger god, then muttered to himself, "I did not just see that." He turned to Tadashi who took glee in pretending that he didn't see Byakko there. Yuki grumbled again and headed up the trail after Shuichi.

Tadashi and Byakko watched him go.

Tadashi looked at the great cat, "Shuichi will not be happy if something happens to him."

"Don't worry, I gave him power that will allow him to travel here and not be affected."

Tadashi was shocked, "But why you have so little strength left!"

"Because Shuichi will not be coming back to us, that is, unless that one can manage to call him before it's too late. Besides he's fun to play with, he refuses to believe in me even when I am sitting right in front of him." The tiger gave a snort and shook his great head, "Don't worry old friend I will follow him."

It was at that moment the others had reached the end of their search. They stared at the dark, inky chasm that hummed with power. They knew they had found the cave where the Id was waiting.


	20. The Id rises

Umm, Hi, I have been very bad. This story is years old but I never actually gave up on it. I was just in a very dark place… for a few years… Thanks reviewers. You have all been so kind to me. I have the very last part of this written and it will be out in the beginning of next week. As always I can handle all sorts of criticism so if you think it stinks just be ready to tell me why.

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The Id rises.

As they approached the mouth of the cave, they were greeted immediately by the stench of rotting flesh that hit them like a brick wall, it had everybody gasping for breath and retching in dead bushes.

Joe cringed as he stared into the mouth of the cave and muttered, "This is it."

Shuichi could feel the magnetic pull of the Id from somewhere in that dark place; he could feel it's yearning, just like he did in his dreams.

With flashlights in hand, they gathered themselves up and entered the cave. The wide maw of the cave seemed to be a dead end but they could hear the low murmur of voices. Across the first room, behind a huge stalagmite was a narrow gap in the wall that glowed with a faint purplish glow. As they neared the gap the murmuring became clearer. The smell was even thicker inside the cave. It was hard to resist the urge to vomit.

The voices became clearer as they crept closer to the entrance of the smaller cave. Siafu and Anthony were fighting about something.

"If I can break the tie between him and the beast I can control it…maybe. I need to give it a sacrifice."

"You don't even know do you, you're just going to end up destroying the world and for what?"

"Anthony dear now is not the time to be getting cold feet." Siafu put his arm on Anthony's shoulder. They heard a startled yelp.

"Boss please, no!" Anthony choked Siafu had plunged a hand right through the man's chest.

"Come now Anthony, did you really expect to survive through this?" Siafu mused.

Joe and the other's rushed into the smaller cave to find Anthony clinging to Siafu's arm that was stuck through his chest as Siafu dangled him over the edge of the pit.

"STOP IT!" Shuichi's shrieked his voice echoing through the chamber. The mass in the pit bubbled and writhed at the sound of his voice. Siafu gave a worried glance in the direction of the pit.

Siafu wrenched Anthony off his arm and the man screamed as he dropped into the pit.

The air became alive with burst of power. That's when Siafu started to laugh, "Shuichi darling I should have known you are the key we were looking for. You woke it up for us. It's being born!" The look in Siafu's eyes sickened Shuichi to no end. From the flickering light of the pit came more horrible sucking tearing sounds like the rending of flesh and bone. Something wrong was being born from the pile of death. Something began to rise from the pit with a collective wave upon wave it slowly took form. The sickly light in the cave touched on something deformed and monstrous, with the vague hint of some kind of animal. Shuichi and the others were dumbstruck with horror as the thing stood up slowly on newly formed legs. They could now see the shape of the enormous head with a long muzzle lined with mismatched teeth. It threw its head back and let out a cry. It was a hideous tormented howl. It was the cry of a thing that cursed its own existence. The echoes of which would haunt the souls of all who heard it.

Siafu's manic laughter was echoing off the cave walls, "It's born!, look at you, you're magnificent!"

The beast turned its head in the direction of Siafu's voice and looked at him with the empty black pits that should have been eyes. Without warning the thing leapt upon him knocking him down to the cave floor. Its flesh colored muzzle dripping with bloodlust. Siafu laughed even harder whether out of fear or insanity, he laughed in the face of his own death until he screamed and Siafu's piercing screams died away as the cave walls were splattered with his blood.

All of them fired blasts at the creature as shouts and explosions rang out reverberating against the cave walls as everything fell into chaos. The creature turned its face to Todd, and he swore could feel those eyeless sockets look right through his soul. Fear so strong it was borderline madness was what froze Todd where he stood grounded to their spot unable to fight or flee, the thing lunged for him. Jenna pushed him out of the way and was caught in its jaws. Joe hit the creature with everything he had, but it seemed to have no effect! Shuichi took out the Byakko's knife and leapt at the thing sinking the blade deep in its neck. It dropped Jenna and flailed about blindly in pain. It flung Shuichi off. Shuichi hit the cave wall hard he felt his shoulder pop then slid to the cave floor.

The beast dropped Jenna let out another cry even louder than the first.

The very mountain itself had begun to crumble. Rocks started dropping from the ceiling and walls of the cave.

It was a frantic scramble to gather up Shuichi and Jenna and out of the cave. Out into what was supposed to be daylight. Shuichi and the others ran stumbling over the shaking mountain as they dodged rocks in blind panic once they had made it into a small stand of trees and bushes on the side of the mountain. They held their breath as they watched the top of the mountain began to disintegrate, each one silently pleading that the thing would just be crushed. Shuichi was barely able to stand he leaned heavily against a tree clutching his dislocated shoulder as his mind spun. What were they going to do now? The one job they had to fulfill, stop the thing from being born and they failed. What was going to happen?

The Id had obliterated the top of the mountain and it rose up from the rubble. By now had grown huge, and as it roared again it spread a pair of fleshy bloody wings out to the darkening sky as rocks of all sizes rained down from the ruined mountain. It looked familiar to Shuichi, very familiar. Then he realized it, he had seen that form writhing in the clouds of his storms.

"This is it! We failed, we have to pull back and see what happens!", Kou shouted over the din of the dragon's roar. Joe and Todd were trying to tend to Jenna whose wounds were pretty bad, she was unconscious and losing blood.

Shuichi stood silent, still clutching his popped shoulder. Joe walked over to Shuichi, he stood in front of him, Shuichi looked up at Joe. "Shuichi, this is going to hurt. Sorry" He warned.

"What?" Shuichi wasn't sure what Joe was about to do. Joe grabbed Shuichi's shoulder and with a quick movement popped it back into its socket. Shuichi let out a scream that caught the monster's attention.

Shuichi crumpled to the ground was trying to convince himself to not pass out from the pain. He looked around at what had become of their little band of would-be heroes. Everybody was beat to hell and they had only faced the Id for a few moments. They never stood a chance against that thing.

The creature's gaze was still fixed on Shuichi, when Shuichi met that empty gaze he felt something stir that stopped his thoughts for a moment.

The others were starting to head back down the mountain. But Shuichi did not follow them. "It heard you scream. Move it Shuichi! Or that thing is going to kill you next." Kou yelled.

Shuichi was numb with fear. There was no waking up from this nightmare. There was no going back and hiding was not an option. He knew he had to make a stand somehow. He did not feel his legs taking the first steps back towards the mountain. Every nerve in his body screamed for him to run the other way, but he wasn't willing to wait to be killed slowly. He had failed everybody. He would rather face death fighting than to have it find him hiding.

"I think I know what I have to do.", He said softly.

* * *

Wow, I do suck at this. I really want to thank everybody who wasted their time on this. If you haven't given up on me yet, don't despair it will all be over soon. ( really, really soon)


	21. The answer

So this is it. The story I had left undone for so many years is now finished.

* * *

The answer.

* * *

"You shouldn't think. It's bad for you." Joe shouted over his shoulder worriedly as he and Kuo prepared to carry Jenna down the side of the mountain.

"Shuichi don't do it!" Todd yelled, "You don't stand a chance against that thing!"

But Shuichi didn't listen; he knew he had to face the beast alone. His whole body began to shimmer with an eerie light as he approached the Id. The Id watched with vacant eyes as the one lone man approached and stood before it and Shuichi calmly returned its gaze. The two regarded each other for a second and it was as if the world held its breath. Then the thing roared at Shuichi, who did not flinch. Shuichi stood his ground with a placid look on his face as he began to hum, it wasn't much of a song. Just bits of notes and words strung together and has he did so he began to glow brighter. The sound of the singing seemed to incense the Id to no end. It snarled at Shuichi, but Shuichi stayed put and began to sing louder as he did so he glowed even stronger. The Id began to flail as if wounded; it screeched and roared then lunged at Shuichi ready to slaughter him as Shuichi began to sing with every fiber of his being. This time without anger, without fear or frustration, Shuichi let his light brake free of its boundaries and it exploded engulfing the top of the mountain, Shuichi, and the Id.

Yuki who had been making his way up the mountain side with Byakko saw the light. It immediately and it gave Yuki a really bad feeling. "Shuichi." He whispered while staring nervously at the top of the mountain.

Inside the light Shuichi found himself looking at a small child who sat curled in a ball with his chin tucked between his knees. Shuichi looked down at the child who did not move. This was the soul of the beast. Shuichi's hand was gripped the hilt of Byakko's dagger. He drew the blade out of its sheath slowly it slid out smoothly like a serpent eager for the strike. As he did so, the child looked up at Shuichi. Shuichi froze when he saw the eyes of the child. They were black, empty eyes, empty as the most remote corner of space.

"Who are you?" Shuichi asked gently.

The child did not move. "You know who I am.", came the tiny but defiant voice.

"You're the Id?"

"Monster, Id, thing, call me whatever you want. I don't have a name."

"So that's how it is?" Shuichi asked puzzled.

"That's the way it's always been."

"Why do you look like a little human boy?"

"This is the form your heart chose for me. You have broken through. Those that make it this far get to choose how they see me, I have no real form. Then again nobody's ever broken through before either." The boy said almost bored as he studied the back of his hand, as if seeing it for the first time. A nameless thing with no real face, name, or home, drifting endlessly, a painful existence that Shuichi could now put to rest.

Shuichi felt his hand shaking, the blade felt so heavy and foreign in his hand, it felt wrong.

"I'm sorry." Shuichi whispered.

With a start the boy suddenly seemed to recognize Shuichi and tears began to form in his eyes. He jumped to his feet and started to yell, "You're the voice! You shouldn't have come here. There's no way back." The tiny voice cracked half crying half yelling, "I was alone for so long. Every time I wake up there is nothing but death around me. I go back to sleep when it gets dark, only to wake up again, but it's always the same. I thought this time was going to be different because I heard you singing. Your voice called to me. For the first time when I woke up, I thought just maybe I didn't have to be alone. Maybe I could be something else, if I could just find you. But I should have stayed asleep everything I touch dies!"

Shuichi took a step closer, but the boy backed away, "There is nothing but death all around me! Now you'll die too! Now I have to watch you die! I hate you! You are going to leave and I will be left to watch your body rot!" The boy was shaking.

"It doesn't have to be that way." Shuichi said as he took a step closer to the boy.

"It's always been this way! I can't stand it!" The little boy was still shaking whether out of fear or rage Shuichi couldn't tell, but seemed to be afraid of Shuichi. For all his storming Shuichi noticed that child was actually petrified to even come near him.

The boy's eyes went wide as he noticed the dagger in Shuichi's hand, but quickly turned away, as if he had just resigned himself to his fate. "So you brought that thing with you. You have come to kill me just like Siafu said you would." He said sounding utterly defeated. "What are you waiting for?" Shuichi looked at the dagger in his hand and immediately felt guilty.

"Is that what you want?"

"Yes. Kill me or I will kill everything you love. My pain will end here and then you die here in peace."

This was his chance. Shuichi could end it all here and now and everything would be ok. His friends would all be safe. He looked down at the boy before him, and the dagger dropped from his hand.

The boy turned and roared, "What are you doing? Stop playing games!".

Up until now Shuichi's real power had gone untapped. It was not the light, or the storms. You see, when all else fails there is one force Shuichi could always count on. Shuichi has a very big heart so big that there was room in it for everyone, and this wounded lonely creature before him was no exception.

Shuichi caught the child and held him. The child struggled screaming with tears of rage and pain, but Shuichi held on. He whispered to the boy. "I will not let you be alone, for as long as I can do anything about it. I promise I will not let you be alone, anymore"

"Don't make promises you can't keep!" The boy screamed, but Shuichi held on. Darkness flowed swirling around them Shuichi's light began to falter. He his strength was failing fast. As the boy raged in his arms there was only one thing Shuichi could think of to do, and that was to follow his heart.

Yuki and others looked on in horror as Shuichi's light died away leaving and empty mountaintop, neither the Id or Shuichi were anywhere to be seen. Byakko nudged Yuki with his paw, "Get on my back, if there's any way to save Shuichi, this will be our only chance." Yuki didn't ask questions. He just climbed on and prayed Shuichi was safe.

Shuichi couldn't take much more of the swirling maelstrom. He was losing what little strength he had left. Yet the swirling darkness around him did not cease. Shuichi felt his muscles begin to shake with the strain of just staying put. It seemed like an eternity in just a few moments. The pulling stretching feeling was getting to him he was losing his grip. This was it he had failed completely. Shuichi didn't want to give up, but there seemed to be nothing left to do accept hang on until the bitter end.

The little boy shuttered in his arms he looked up at Shuichi sadly, "I am so sorry, I don't want you to die."

Shuichi whispered to the boy, "It will be alright. It will be all right, your not alone, and your not nameless anymore, Tsuzuki."

That's when everything, stopped. A name… Shuichi had just given him a name.

The winds may have stopped but Shuichi was exhausted, too exhausted to think. It was over but now what? He his mind felt like it was sitting on the shore of a vast black ocean. In all directions there was no sign of home. There was no sign of anything he was lost clutching the now unconscious child in his arms. There was only one thought left on his mind. Yuki. He thought he could hear Yuki's voice somewhere. It felt so distant, he would never be able to reach him, never see those golden eyes again. "Yuki. I'm so sorry. I love you." Shuichi whispered into Tsuzuki's hair and with that Shuichi slipped away from the shores of the light and into the abyss. Thoughts of his lover now filling his mind.

"Reach out your hand Yuki and call him again." Byakko insisted.

Yuki was petrified there was no sign of Shuichi anywhere, but he did as he was instructed and out of nowhere Shuichi's had suddenly grabbed his. He could feel Shuichi's grip was week he made a quick move to grab the rest of Shuichi that seemed to materialize in his lap.

Shuichi had to be dreaming when he Yuki riding Byakko and calling his name. That was impossible, yes very impossible, but he reached out for the dream Yuki anyway, even if it was a dream, what a sweet dream. The feel of soft fur and warmth of Yuki's arms seemed to wrap Shuichi tightly made Shuichi smile he lost the last shred of consciousness he had left.

Yuki panicked had they been too late? "Hey Shu, Shu wake up. Hey."

"He'll be okay. Let's get him back" Yuki noticed the child with blond hair nestled against Shuichi's chest and was more than a little surprised, where the hell did he pick up a kid?

Shuichi could feel the warm light next to him. He still clutching Tsuzuki tightly in his arms, he opened his eyes and found himself back on earth safely nestled between Byakko's front paws. They were back at the dojo. The garden still looked a wreck but there were hints of green shoots in the beds of the gardens. Shuichi noticed that Byakko himself looked sleek and strong again as well. His fur now radiated a wonderful warm white glow.

"Shuichi, oh good your awake, finally. Everybody is waiting for you." Byakko said softly.

"Huh, for what?" Shuichi started to move and found he still had Tsuzuki in his lap.

"You've been out for a few hours."

"Really? Oooh ow." Shuichi started to move and found his shoulder was in terrible shape.

"Shuichi."

"What is it Byakko?"

"Thank you." Byakko purred.

"T-Thank you? Shuichi stammered, "For what?"

"For being you. You found a way to save everybody. You gave him a name and tamed his spirit he has a true form and heart now."

Shuichi leaned back further into Byakko's chest fur. "Byakko, I like you but I never understand half of the things you say."

Byakko snorted in exasperation, don't mortals ever think for themselves anymore, "The instant you gave Tsuzuki his name he was born as this boy."

"He's going to be okay now, isn't he?" Shuichi started playing with Tsuzuki's hair, "Is he going to wake up soon?"

"He will, hopefully have no memory of his dark past. For the first time since this creature had come into being, he seems is happy. That's thanks to you."

"What now?"

"He's your responsibility now. He will listen to no one else but you little hero. Don't worry though we will be around to guide you if you need it."

Tsuzuki started to stir sleepily. He opened his eyes, Shuichi was surprised to see that instead of the empty eyes of the Id, Tsuzuki's were now the same color as Shuichi's.

Shuichi looked up a Byakko questioningly, "We?"

"This child will have many guardian spirits as he grows. Take good care of him for us. Raise him well."

"I-I will. I promise." Shuichi assured as Tsuzuki began to wake fully.

He looked up into Shuichi's face blinking with wide purple eyes, "Momma?"

Shuichi beamed at his son, "Yes, I guess I am your momma."

"Oh wait Yuki! Where's Yuki I could have sworn I saw him, before."

"Ah, that one, he's in the house fighting with your grandfather."

Shuichi lit up, "He's here?" Byakko nodded and thumped his tail with amusement.

Shuichi started to yell, "Yuki, hey Yuki!"

Yuki burst through the door at the sound of Shuichi's voice and rushed over to him. He hugged Shuichi tight, eliciting a yelp of pain as he grabbed Shuich's band shoulder.

"Shu, hopeless brat, you had me so worried."

"Never mind that Yuki", Shuichi interrupted, "I need you to meet somebody. Look! We have a kid! Isn't that so cool!"

"Uh what?" Yuki paled as he looked over to the small boy clinging to Shuichi's side.

"See? Shuichi scooped up the child and plopped him on Yuki's lap, "His name is Tsuzuki and he's from hell er space, er spacehell!"

Tsuzuki looked up at Yuki, who looked like he was about to throw up, and said happily, "DADDY!"

Then Yuki passed out cold.

THE END.

* * *

Now just how do two men raise an ancient powerful creature born around the beginning of time… well you start with lots of love and one really well stocked first aid kit.

. I am not doing the whole two men and a god, child, thing.


End file.
